With a name as audacious and seemingly ostentatious as Great Value Jesus, I was immediately intrigued by what these Bloomington based rockers had to offer. On Dissassociation Nation, the group bring to life a myriad of styles from alternative, grunge, psychedelic, punk, indie, and more. From the meandering bass line to the spaced out and glistening vocal layering, Something in the Way kickstarts the rather hazy and chaotic Dissassociation Nation with furore.
Disassociation Nation is written to be experienced in its entirety, to flow from track to track with purpose and intent. It’s only through imbibing each piece, does the sum of the parts start to illuminate over you and you start to get the full picture and over-arching narrative. Through its half hour long run time and seven tracks, Great Value Jesus weaves together a turbulent and evocative journey that highlights growth through the stratospheric highs and lows of mental illness.
It’s a rock record that’s ambitious in scope and scale, but more interesting in its diversity and willingness to sink itself in the abnormalities and weirdness that they revel in. It’s authentic and heartfelt, intimate but distant, and wholly intriguing. Songs like ‘Static’ describe eerily the feeling of being overwhelmed and distraught that all the noise and life around you just turns to static. Others like Stan go even darker, describing thoughts of death and walking through your day to day with overbearing mental pain. And then the final few tracks represent a more optimistic turn, at least a tinge of hopefulness and admiration for the world around us.
Psychedelic grunge rock done mesmerizingly well.