This was a good band. A great band. And then you kept us waiting for years for this crap? What were you thinking? To give some idea, all of the quirkiness and aggressiveness that made Powerman 5000 such a great band is gone. Just plain gone, as though it never existed. At my first chance, I listened through "Tonight the Stars Revolt" and "True Force" in the vain hope that I could draw some kind of parallel from the two albums to the new one. Some glimmer that "Transform" represents the next logical step in Powerman's progression. I hoped against hope to find something, but came up empty handed.

The whole of this project is disappointing. This could have been a crowning achievement to cap off a tri-fecta of excellent music, but instead is like the lazy uncle who won't pull his own weight. Not everything here is drop-dead awful. There are roughly three and a half good songs here out of thirteen. The title track isn't bad, but it lacks the personality of say, "When World's Collide." "Top of the World" and "Hey, That's Right" just about round out the good efforts here, but make no mistake; they suffer from the same lack of style that the title track does. "Top of the World" makes the best effort, but still falls short of the standard for Powerman 5000. As for the half good song, "The Shape of Things to Come," and "I Knew it" didn't make me recoil in horror, so I collectively give them half a good song. The rest is out right repugnant. Sometimes sounding like a poor cousin of Static-X, other times sounding like a metal version of Duran Duran, and on one brief occasion, a song reminded me of Gordon Lightfoot. You heard me. There's even a track that if I didn't know better, I would believe it to be Powerman's attempt at a ballad. How the mighty have fallen. 

The problem here, as near as I can figure it, is that the album spends too much time trying to be smart, and not nearly enough time trying to be good and/or loud and/or unique. I can only imagine the mental prowess unleashed when writing this album. "Hey, let's write a song about nothing, but have it be ABOUT being about nothing! That's so deep, man!" Pure genius. Such a track does appear on the album under the inspirational title "Song about nuthin'." Although, Spider does have one thing right on this album. In the song mentioned above, the chorus says something along the lines of "this could have been about something, but it's not, so don't waste your time looking for a meaning." Oh, I won't Spider, I won't.

The jacket for "Tonight the Stars Revolt" mentions that the album is best heard through ear-splitting loudness. Feel free to keep your speakers low, or preferably, off, during "Transform." Oh, "Transform," I fear your future lies in the used CD bin. Bottom line: Even Powerman 5000 die-hards should rent before buying. Everyone else should petition their congress representative to force Powerman 5000 back into the studio. Hang your head in disgrace, Spider, and get back to work making good music. As for a score, I'll give it a reflection of its good song count. 3 and a half.