Music Review: Umphrey's McGee rules with new 'Mantis'

Umphrey's McGee, “Mantis” (Sci Fidelity)

It's hard to find a tidy musical box to put Umphrey's McGee in. The Chicago-based band's boundless exploration of jazz-infused jam rock defies further description. In the case of their eighth album, “Mantis,” elusiveness is a good thing.

“Mantis” gives the rock opera treatment to the jam band genre. This soaring harmonic attack on the senses could have failed wildly.

But it didn't.

A few snippets of traditional blues-rock here, some jazz and heavy metal phrasings there, and voila! A beautiful music gumbo.

Songs like “Made To Measure,” are similar to jaunty mid-career Beatles numbers — evenly paced with proper hooks and turns and no jagged edges. Other tracks, like the short instrumental “Cemetery Walk II” would fit nicely in a techno club on the isle of Ibiza. Go figure. The band pulls off the trans-genre trick without a hitch.

Check this track out: “Turn & Run,” begins with a carefree pace and attitude. “We don't believe there is no need to celebrate a thing/ It's all the same you'll talk away, no words to say.” Then Jake Cinneger turns in the guitar solo of the decade and sets the whole thing on fire.