I've been waiting for a few months for this baby to land: Mantis, the latest studio album from jam band Umphrey's McGee. What caught my interest? There were a couple of things: 1) I'm a big Umphrey's fan, 2) I hadn't heard ANY of the songs on the record, and 3)the innovative pre-order program they put in place.

What's so special about the pre-order program? Well, if you haven't read about it from other sources, they implemented tiered levels of unlockable content. As they reached certain sales goals, a new leve would open up. Each level contained a handful of musical tracks that were previously unavailable to anyone, including scratch tracks of songs from the new album, 4-track recordings of unreleased material, and previously unavailable live material.

But on to the record. What's the big deal about Mantis? Here's the story. Jam band history is littered with the remains of bands that were great live but just couldn't seem to create a cohesive or terribly listenable studio album. Many casual listeners get scared away because they don't want to hear another studio recording that sounds just like a live concert; read, they don't want to listen to Jerry Garcia or Trey Anastasio noodle on for sixty or seventy minutes. As a big Phish fan myself, I have to admit that while I very much enjoy listening to the Phish studio albums, they're not great, as these things go.

On the more mainstream side of things, we have a long history in popular music of groups that were great in the studio, but terrible in concert (see Milli Vanilli).

By now, it's an established fact that Umphrey's owns the stage. They're fantastic in a live setting, and manage to somehow bring excitement into songs they've been playing for years. Their studio albums have improved over time, starting with "Local Band Does O.K.", and up to Safety in Numbers, their previous studio release. With each release, they stepped away from the tendency to noodle in the studio, and created a better and better product. But their approach to the creation of each of their releases to date was to work songs out in concert, and then adapt them for the studio.

With Mantis, they worked entirely in secret, as it were, never even playing any of the songs live until their recent New Year's run in Chicago in December, 2008.

They spent about two years making the album, and in my opinion, the effort paid off.

Mantis presents Umphrey's McGee in something of a new light: as a progressive rock band in the vein of King Crimson and early Genesis. Some have even drawn comparisons to Frank Zappa, which must come as a huge compliment to the band.

The centerpiece of Mantis is the title track, an epic song that clocks in at just under twelve minutes. Yes, it's a big chunk of music to chew on, but no part of the song is out of place and none of it is extraneous. It's not often that I can say such things about such a long song, but there it is.

The other songs are strong, as well, and the whole album works together very nicely to present itself as a complete work. Compared with Anchor Drops and Safety in Numbers, Mantis is much more up front and in your face. The guitars are loud and crunchy, and in some cases, the grooves will just plain melt your face (see 1348).

So, what's the big deal about Mantis? In Mantis, what I see is a jam band, one of the best, taking a giant leap that no others have succeeded in making. Mantis will certainly be an album that brings in new fans who might be afraid of being bored to death by yet another lame jam record.

They're streaming the album in its entirety for another day, or so, over at iLike. Go check it out.