Chris Willie Williams is intent on believing that you will enjoy a look back at something that Herbie Hancock mastered, "Rockit." With a synthesized vocal and vocoder used, Disclaimer relies on snippets of Gregorian chants, a mellow keyboard, and a brief trip-hop beat to communicate his message on "Fixing a Hole." It is the work of someone in his basement with too much time on his hands. That isn't to say there aren't some good songs, but the splintered, fragmented approach leaves little to be desired generally. Quirky songs such as "God Said, 'Plastics!'" is more pop-oriented but is too lightweight, making Ben Folds sounds like a hard rock performer by comparison. When he approaches songs with a new take on new wave, he fares a tad better. "Vending Machine" is a good example of this which could be mistaken for a Gary Numan B-side despite being incomplete. Utterly boring though is the simplistic choirboy vocal effort on the inanely titled "Like the Backside of a Bulimic's Teeth (#1: Bats=Bugs)." When he ups the tempo into a moderate pop/rock format, as he does during "You Ruined Everything" he hits on something à la Velvet Crush or Matthew Sweet. One quality moment is the soft pop hue on "Generic Shoulder Blade Tattoo," which is just above a whisper. The ambient and mellow "De Sitter Horizons" is a sleeper on the album as it isn't as awful as other offerings but has a certain charm within it. The poppy and rather catchy hook to "Wrong for the Right Reasons Is Still Wrong" is a welcome change from the mechanical, synthesized aura on the record. "I couldn't end it there," Williams sings on the hidden bonus track. Listeners might have wished he had.
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