Blonde Redhead "23"
Friday, February 16, 2007
It turns out that Misery is a Butterfly was a one-stop detour, after all. I really liked that record, and still do (to a slightly lesser degree–Ed.), but I can understand why a lot of others didn’t. It was the post-Kazu Mikino-horse-related-injury album, and it reflected her significant bed-ridden life/death contemplation, resulting in a creakier, much more ethereal and decidedly less rhythmic tone that most were used to, or expected. In other words, it was their Sparklehorse album. But 23, the new album, has taken all of Butterfly’s kinetic energy and channeled it into a propulsive, streamlined collection of songs—still a step forward, but in the opposite lateral direction that the last effort went (I don’t know if that makes sense). Before Butterfly, the group was never fond of overly ostentatious presentations, and the best songs on 23 are tightly wound, never wavering far from the rhythm, and the melodies are sharp, efficient, and appropriately restrained. In other words, they’re closer to the form the band started to suggest on the Guy Picciotto-produced Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, from way back in 2000. It’s not a regression as much as a seeming attempt to regain (or perhaps, gain for the first time) some semblance of sonic continuity—there is plenty of evidence that suggests the band’s not done with some of the ideas first approached on Butterfly, for instance—and while it’s not a spotless try, it’s got some pretty great moments. “23” (mp3) is going to be the first single, and it certainly sounds like it. After introducing itself with a few bent piano notes, it hurtles forward on a tight, cyclical drum foundation that echoes Hail to the Thief’s “Where You End and I Begin.” Mikino’s vocals glide atop the washed-out, guitars and low, rumbling bass like expressive detail work, but reveal the most when the song hits what passes for its chorus and she’s content to go wordless.
23 comes out April 10th on 4AD.
ELSEWHERE: From the same dude behind the (actually quite loud) So Much Silence music blog comes Circa 45, on which he makes rare indie 7″s turn invisible, and then go onto the Internet, complete with “where found” and “catalog #” information for added authenticity. It’s been a while, but there’s finally a new music blog worth frequenting.
Yeah, this is really promising, although it might possibly not match the initial rush of hearing I Still Get Rocks Off for the first time all those years ago.
Awww, thank you, sir. You’re too kind. There probably will be more than indie 45s, too, as I uncover my dad’s collection he passed on to me. Frightening pop from the 60s-70s that I have no clue about!
Hmmm… Do you think Blonde Redhead are pissed about the new Jim Carrey movie?
I just listened to 23 for the first time and it really floored me. Like you said, there are mistakes, but there are also a few moments of brilliance. I loved The Dress in particular. I was actually sad when it ended.
I’ve listened to it three times since Friday, and I’ll be honest, it just doesn’t have the pull that “Misery…” did.
I like the record ad think it’s good, but I have to be honest with myself. Once you hear a band’s ability to really make a strong emotional statement, it’s hard to hear them “pull back” without feeling they’ve made a mistake.
I think the argument that “Misery…” had less going on rhythmically is incorrect. One of the main things I really miss on “23″ is the lack of interesting drum beats. Messenger, Melody, and Doll Is Mine pretty much lay to waste all other bands in their path with those drum beats. and “23″ has nothing to comes close.
Sure, I know the strings were too over the top for a lot of people on the last album, but I just flat out don’t find the subtlety in songcraft on this album that was on the last. They could’ve completely left off strings from Misery and still created a much more amazing record than this one.
agreed re: drums on 23. they’re simplified to the point of being robotic at points, esp. on the first three or so tracks. they pick up a rhythmic pattern and stick with it, perhaps to a fault.
and my appreciation for Misery is complicated…i LOVED it when it came out, and played it ad nauseum, mostly to friends who despised it. i then put it away for a year or so, and just recently dug it out again when i heard 23 was coming out. there are still moments of brilliance there, but fewer than i remember.
23 is still dancing around my brain as i try to figure out how to place it w/in BR’s catalog. it’s alan moulder-ed (something important i neglected to mention in the thing), which i think suits them well in terms of guitar tone and density. but while it has lost a lot of the nuance they developed on Misery, it reappears often here.
I think I had the opposite reaction:
played Misery ad nauseum upon release, came back to it recently (not knowing 23 was on the way) and was even more blown away than i was the first go around.
i’m still waiting to see how 23 seeps in.
I agree with Bobby. “Misery” is a beautiful album, probably my favorite of theirs. I think the ethereality and moodiness really suits them. Either way, I’m excited for the new album. New directions are always welcome.
all of these comments just compare this album to previous albums. weak.
I have been a huge fan of blonde redhead for a long time now, and i will say that i think 23 is the best album they’ve done so far. the beats are yes, maybe a little too simple. but the melodies, that is where this album shines.
Blonde Redhead has the most original and enjoyable music of the new millenium. “Expression of the Inexpressible” is one of the most fantastic songs ever made. It just utterly explodes. Both “Misery is Butterfly” and “23″ overload synchopations, symphonic dissonances, and harmonic tonal and atonal combinations at brainscattering speeds and variations. Pace’s voice, compliments Kazu Makino’s very very harmoniously, and both singers, in songs like “Pink Love” and “Publisher” drone in and out of variations of themes with such touching minor variations, the scales of Western and even Eastern music are challenged, and in most instances, with such beauty, that the few variances into disturbing levels of dissonances act as compliments.
There is no one like P. J. Harvey.
There is no band close to Blonde Redhead. The closest would be Sparklehorse.
When Sparklehorse came out with “Dreamt for Lightyears in the Belly of a Mountain”, the world itself, changed, and for the better. We actually came into the Aquarian age. The slow building “Dreamt for Lightyears in the Belly of a Mountain” crescendoes into violins and flutes, in vatiations of symphonic thematics so gradually that that tremendous masterpiece was the 21st century’s tour de force so far, until this.
23 outdoes Misery is Butterfly as well as Sparklehorse’s master works. “The Dress” is so orgasmic, beautiful, sinister, fragile, real, and just like the beating heart, the breathing, the palpitations, and the vulnerability of fear in love, it’s better than “Whole Lotta Love” or even “No Quarter”, better than Led Zepellin even at their best, better than Jeff Buckley, and the best song anyone has brought to us so far.
We have others. We have P.J. Harvey’s slow burns……”Is this Desire” “Tarzan get off the Fucking Ceiling” and “Pocket Knife”.
We have songs here and there like Sparklehorse’s “Piano Fire”, and even Sarah McClachlan…”Elsewhere” and Joni Mitchell….”Blue”
But we do not have an album like 23.
We have pastiches like the White Album and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. But although they are our best albums until this, they just arent this tight.
Every song is perfect. The segways and percussive climaxes on the last songs are extraordinarily dramatic, and the sound pastiches of the album echo not only in the voices, but in the instruments and the rythms from song to song. This is the tightest album ever made. How can the public be this unaware of this group?