1.
initiation (7.07)
2. you'll get us all killed (2.39)
3. disrupt (2.49)
4. don'ts (4.28)
5. omonimous (3.49)
6. and now a word from... (3.12)
7. idiot rhythm (2.44)
8. rubber bullet manifesto (6.36)
9. paid in half (3.24)
10. the fantastic actual (2.47)
11. accretion (5.33)
12. so long, suckers (3.31)
|
This
one has a particularly neat cover, some photographs by Tina
fucked around with til they look like mad paintings. Peep the
front,
inside and back!
'Don'ts' (the title is a nod to J Dilla's 'Donuts') continues
2007's trend of albums rocking radically different styles; this
is the first proper album to feature lots of acoustic guitar.
Or, more accurately, all acoustic guitar. I'd spent a lot of
this year listening to things like James Blackshaw, Jack Rose
and John Fahey, and with my interest in acoustics rekindled
I splashed out on a neat £300 guitar to replace the cheap
3/4 size one I'd been using til now.
Partly out of not wanting a build-up of hiss from overdubs,
and partly out of stylistic bloodymindedness, I decided that
all these tracks would be done in straight live takes, and so
it proved. There's a split between tracks that were pretty much
entirely improvised and tracks I'd written properly. Opener
'Initiation' is in the former category, a 7-minute rumbling
kind of drone piece which kind of lets you know what it's about.
It's a bit of a curve ball really, as 'You'll Get Us All Killed'
is bright and optimistic, and I like to thinks its sweetness
just about overcomes my cack-handed playing of it. 'Disrupt'
changes pace again, a jerky kind of math-rock chorus on it,
while 'Don'ts itself is back on the pretty, there's a kind of
summery jangle to it; likewise with the later 'And Now A Word
From...' and 'Paid In Half'. 'Omonimous' is a fast exercise
in largely random fingerpicking.
'Rubber Bullet Manifesto' and 'Accretion' are both semi-improvised
long pieces, while 'The Fantastic Actual' is pretty much classic
Enough Rope, if that means anything at all. 'Idiot Rhythm' is
an odd one, it's all tapped out on the body of the guitar with
occasional string-slapping harmonics. The closing 'So Long Suckers'
hits you with VOCALS, man, albeit meaningless nonsense ones.
I'm happy with the way this came out, and if this proves to
be the last album of 2007, it's a great way to round of what's
been a pretty exciting year for us. I mean, me. |
© Enough
Rope