I must say, It is hard to think of an interesting opening line when the album I am reviewing happens to be a lot more interesting than anything I can come up with, in terms of originality.
Ladies and gents, if you are not familiar with the case insensitive tUnE-yArDs then welcome to the circus. Merrill Garbus made a statement with BiRd-BrAiNs, an album recorded on a hand-held digital voice recorder and mixed and mastered through a no cost digital recording program Audacity.
Since then she has recruited Nate Brenner on bass, and after playing some impressive shows around the world, she has come up with her first proper studio album, W H O K I L L. An album that pushes boundaries and impresses throughout.
W H O K I L L starts off with 'My Country', which begins with a brief introduction by maestro, Merrill, recorded in a lo-fi fashion as with bird brains (I'm too lazy to type it with different types of letters). But then a much more high quality hip-hoppy tribal beat takes over and drives the song. This song is littered with little vocal loops, wigged out synths, smooth bass and Merrill sounding like someone just stuck a brand on her as she spits out her vocals in a little freak number about her coming to terms with her own guilt about her life’s advantages over others. Straight off the bat the upgrade from voice recorder to recording studio is noticeable. Following on with 'Es-So' has an old school New Orleans guitar song feel as if Primus were in charge. Over the top of which Merrill has an ascending vocal style which then courtesy of backing vocals going into a almost gangster hip hop delivery.
The best way to describe 'Gangsta', is like in that South Park episode where they play detectives and they have their fake guns. Cartman yells at Kenny for making the Petcho, Petcho gun sound instead of BANG, BANG, BANG! It is a song that does force attention down the listener’s throat with Merill providing gun sounds sirens and freak horn sounds for the listeners. Comparing a gun song before this, which also has similar lyrics and a dumbed down version of this songs music, is M.I.A's Paper Planes.
M.I.A's song which became a pop success nearly a year after its release just sort of puttered along and threw in a few sound effects for posterity (and for drunken bogans to make guns with their fingers in order to lure the even more classy female bogan, in whatever former 'punk' club turned R'n'B club that supplies them with too many jager bombs or rum and cokes…. Anyway…) this song actually delivers a real gun in a metaphorical sense and literally blows the listener away. One of the better songs on the album, and in my opinion, for the year so far. It is a confronting number and demands attention and also leaves the listener with ants in their pants.
'Powa' delivers a slower approach to get its message across with a classic R'n'B feel as its roots over delays and loops. Notably, on the outro of this song, is where Merril takes on a free style falsetto vocal wail reminiscent to a scaled down version of Pink Floyds, The Great Gig in the Sky. 'Riotriot' continues on in a darker fashion with Merril almost whispering her vocals until the song evolves into a Mars Volta almost freak out, to a shaman rant that would fit in perfectly as a headliner at Woodford, into a horn section and then back to gloom and doom. Yeah, it's not a song that would fit well in any So Fresh compilation and would even seem a bit odd for Bjork.
First single off this album and personal favourite, 'Bizness' is one of the tracks on the album where the introduction of Nate Brenners dynamic to the band, influences can be heard. Loose funk bass lines compliment appreciated vocal samples and Merrill’s explosive vocal delivery takes it up a notch from 'My Country' and 'Gangsta'. This song sounds as if Dirty Projectors got drunk one night and had a three-way with Bjork and The Go! Team, then nine months later gave birth and had no idea who the father was. There are so many styles that can be heard in here from 50's R'n'B to Electronica to Psychedelia. It does sit on a different plane to a number of songs on the album and if you hear this song before any other, you can tell why it is a single. But in many ways this a great song to represent the album and this song will wind up on my best of the year list without thinking twice.
The catchy 'Doorstep' has you singing along from the ever changing blunt opening line of 'The police man shot my baby as he passed out on my doorstep'. In a song that chronicles a sexual fantasy about a brutal cop that arrests Merrill's brother, it is a oddly light hearted song with Merrill taking a more 'womanly' approach to her vocals, 'You Yes You' has the gentle hum from bird brains and is a much light hearted positive twist from Doorstep and you will be singing the yelping 'What’s that about' for a while. Guitar gets much more prominent in this number and coupled with the bass and the dual ear drum snare sample, it creates a nice little danceable number.
The 6min 'Wolly Wolly Gong' is Merrill doing her best lo-fi Bjork impression. It has more of a nursery rhyme delivery about it, in not only its lyrical content but its structure and melody. Unlike the rest of the album it is much slower and acts as a calming mechanism for the rest of the album. It is a song that requires more listens to be appreciated and is still essentially a great song; it just doesn't jump off the page like the rest.
Taking out the album is 'Killa' which when it begins you think Dr Dre has taken over, but then a Dirty Projectors guitar line comes in and then it flows in an indie sense even with Merrill delivering the line 'I'm a new kind of woman' in a chavvy hip hop style. This song deals with Merrill's sense of woman hood and self image like earlier track Es-So. It is a good song for this album to go out on.
I have tried my best to review this cd, but it is definitely an album that requires the listener to form their own opinions about the music.
I'll be honest in saying that the first time I heard tUnE-yArDs; I thought the lead singer was a man. But after repeated listens, if Merrill wasn't on the front line of this band, a lot of what has made this cd and their live performances would be lost in the realms of a more conventional vocalist, even with the bizarre musical centrepieces.
This is an experimental piece of work. Despite abandoning most of the lo-fi charm that bird brains had, it still keeps to that same aesthetic in terms of the level of experimentation and originality. It is a bright and fun record that has the ability to keep you interested and to be singing the little vocal quirks and musical hooks in your day to day life
It is not a political record per-se, but it deals with lots of social issues and public taboos, but the style of the record is not of one that inspires much thought on the subject. The messages about race, appearance, men and women, privilege etc. are delivered in a less thought provoking way but when you think about it, it adds depth to an already impressive pallet. From the subtlety on 'Killa' where Merrill questions why she does not have more black friends in a ultimate point on racism, to what jumps off the page in 'Riotriot' which couples sexuality with brutality.
There have been a number of comparisons between tUnE-yArDs and Sonic Youth. While musically they are on two totally different plains, lyrically and structurally it can be seen in comparison with a number of tracks from Washing Machine and EVOL, also the SYR series.
This is an album that will be high on a lot of people’s end of year charts
9.00/10
No comments:
Post a Comment