I recently sold my car, which was where
I would tend to listen to my new music when I’m not doing this CD Odyssey
thing. As a result I have one less way to listen to new music, and my new
purchases are starting to overflow (I think there are around 70 right now I
haven’t properly grokked in their fullness).
Fortunately, the CD Odyssey has a
rule that allows me to insert a new (to me) album into the mix if I choose to.
It has been years since I’ve done it, but I’m going to try it out again by periodically
taking a new album (still rolled randomly) from the albums I’ve recently purchased
and inserting it into the mix. This next review is one of those.
Disc 903 is….Superwolf
Artist: Bonnie
Prince Billy, with Matt Sweeney
Year of Release: 2005
What’s up with the Cover? A bloody hand, raised from the
water. Shark attack? Superwolf? Superwolf Sharknado? The B-movie options are
almost endless.
How I Came To Know It: Recently when I decide I like an
artist sufficiently, I dig through their back catalogue and listen to
everything they’ve ever done that I can find on Youtube. Then I buy what I
like. I recently did this with Bonnie Prince Billy and “Superwolf” made the
cut.
How It Stacks Up: I have one compilation album by Bonnie Prince
Billy and four studio albums. Of the four studio albums, I must reluctantly put
“Superwolf” last.
Ratings: 3 stars
“Superwolf”
is a headphones-only album that loses a lot of its oomph when played in the
open air. It is also an atmospheric record, with a lot of ambient sound filling
in all the gaps of the production. Sometimes I wish it were a little sparser,
or would at least get where it is going with more sense of direction.
Bonnie
Prince Billy is a natural poet, but it is not always clear what he’s getting
at. He carefully chooses words to evoke a mood that mixes restlessness, unease,
sexual desire and romanticism. It isn’t an easy cocktail to adjust to, but usually
it is worth the effort.
The
opening track, “My Home Is The Sea”
starts the record off on the right foot, with the stark opening of:
“I have often said
That I would like to be dead
In a shark’s mouth”
It then
morphs into a surprisingly romantic love song. Bonnie Prince Billy is nae very
bonnie, and he’s obviously learned how to use music to woo the ladies. Even I
felt wooed by many of “Superwolf’s” tracks.
“Beast for Thee” and “What Are You?” follow the opening track
with more romance and a fairly large helping of sexual innuendo as well, and I
found myself slipping into a drifting reverie, under the Bonnie Prince’s high
tenor voice, frail and insistent.
Then “Goat and Ram” breaks the spell, alternating
a lukewarm bath of directionless reverb guitar with the clash of instruments
that sound too loud no matter how much you turn down the volume. The treatment stands
out like a sore thumb, and makes the song disruptive and (dare I say it) a
little annoying.
Worse
still is “Blood Embrace.” It is
almost eight minutes long, starting out with a pretty nifty and haunting melody
on the guitar that unfortunately never develops into something more. For the
first two minutes you are excited to see where the song will go, and for the
last six you just want it to end.
While “Blood Embrace” is the worst offender,
many of the other songs have a similar problem. They start out promising but
they have a meandering feeling that makes me want them to just do a little
more.
The overall
effect is similar. Even though the record is a tastefully restrained 11 songs
and 43 minutes long it seems to drag and take too long to say what it has to
say. Despite this, I can’t deny Bonnie Prince Billy’s innovative approach to
music, and it lifts the album from merely average to good.
The
record ends on a high point, with the depressing but beautiful “I Gave You”
“I gave you a child, and you didn’t
want it
That’s the most that I have to
give
I gave you a house and you didn’t
haunt it
Now where am I supposed to live?”
All the unsettled
romanticism expressed earlier on the record comes home to roost on “I Gave You,” which expresses the horror
of a love that won’t leave, even though everything it now touches is polluted
and wrong.
On a
record that I was considering giving away, it is just enough to land the needle
on the “keep” side of the dial, at least for now. However, “Superwolf” is still
not a record I would use to introduce someone to Bonnie Prince Billy.
Best
tracks: My Home Is The Sea, What Are You?, Only
Someone Running, Death in the Sea, I Gave You
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