disc
one:
1. the next (4.16)
2. heads drop (4.43)
3. fear of knives (2.50)
4. trippy (3.40)
5. from cloud (5.02)
6. god bless you, noble pilots (3.13)
7, hey! let's all grow fashion mullets again (3.28)
8. skywriting (2.41)
9. flip the witch (2.53)
10. attack song (1.28)
11. glass (4.24)
12. ends the same way (2.50)
13. show of hands (5.42)
disc two:
1. woke up this morning... (7.29)
2. your surrender will be slow and painful (2.13)
3. the bad human (8.13)
4. hello, mutants (4.33)
5. one band clapping (1.37)
6. collapse (10.49)
7. drive (13.12)
|
See
the front cover,
inside and back.
So, what to do when you can't decide whether to do a punchy,
straightforward and melodic album or a more experimental set
of longer songs and more abstract thinking? Fucking double album,
that's what. This is Enough Rope's 'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below';
the two halves of the band rumoured not to be getting along
so well anymore, but talk of a split is greatly exaggerated.
I guess in Enough Rope's case such a split would be more painful
than most.
Disc one, then, mostly cuts to the quick, although the first
track is deceptively, er, measured; it has something of the
'In The Pulse Of An Artery'-era Rothko about it, in the days
when they were three bassists with some echo. And a tiny bit
of 'Thus Spake Zarathustra', by accident. 'Heads Drop' gets
you underway proper, all complementary melodies and bounce before
dissolving into a mess, and finishing on some kind of bassline,
and that sound you get when you strum the strings past the neck
and it sounds like a tiny piano being played inside a tin box.
'Fear Of Knives' is two themes, the first is textbook, and the
other is a tricksy, almost mathrock clash of bassy riffs. Nice?
'Trippy' breaks out the wonky almost-psych-pop freedom I've
been doing a bit of recently, and then 'From Cloud' is all pop,
ish. Broke out the djembe drum again for that one, played with
the handle of a hairbrush because my hands are useless; it finishes
on a climbing 'Dotwrk' type scenario. '...Noble Pilots' is a
strange one, it's pretty much all basslines and looped background
noises, which I thought was jolly but in retrospect is maybe
a little unsettling. In a good way, mind.
'Hey! Let's All Grow Fashion Mullets' again is the sequel to a Melted
Face Orchestra attack, and is a rare outing for an acoustic guitar
on a proper ER album. It works though, I borrowed my brother's 12-string
and went for it. Much happens. 'Skywriting' is a real sweet thing,
and then onto maybe the most one-off track on the disc: 'Flip The
Witch' almost justifies its dreadful title by having the quirk of
being made almost entirely from vocal loops, almost three minutes
of layered humming and buried singing with just a dash of guitar at
the end for the meat. 'Attack Song' is another uptempo interlude,
'Glass' is an old-skool thing, 'Ends The Same Way' has some aaaalmost
funky guitar in, and it all ends on 'Show Of Hands', a winner based
on a palm-mute beat and a whole lotta love.
Disc two changes the pace though, it's essentially four long
tracks and a few sketches. 'Woke Up This Morning...' is close
to what the title implies, a kind of weary, dusty kind of groggy-headed
improv-folk. I tried to put some harmonica on it but my guitar
was too out-of-tune for it to fit. That's the price of this
level of amateurishness, I suppose. I'm rambling a bit, so I'll
skip on to the two closers, the longest songs on either record.
'Collapse' is a semi-improvised kind of controlled mess, all
slow build and eventual destruction, and the merest hint of
a tune every now and then, before 'Drive', which is built around
a single stabbing chord played on loop; it's slightly reminiscent
of 'New Product' but more...singular of focus.
I'm really happy with this, I feel like it has a good sense
of balance, and it's nice to do something a bit different. Having
said that, I did it as a double partly to ease Tina's artwork
load. I'm sweet like that. I think that might be it for albums
this year, three a year is probably enough, especially if one's
a double. Next up is the second of the 3" CD series, which
is already done. No fucking around with me. |
© Enough
Rope