Review Summary: A phenomenal EP that defines The Red Paintings' stellar musicianship and the genius of Trash McSweeny.
For a band that does not have an official LP and depends on the success of their EPs and word-of-mouth to gain notoriety outside of their native Australia, The Red Paintings sure play some pretty phenomenal music to complement their extravagant live shows. At their shows, anything and everything has the potential of being painted onstage, from a series of canvas to even audience members.
But what makes The Red Paintings' music phenomenal?
To begin, it all starts with the band's composition. Comprised of a lead vocalist and guitarist, a bassist, a violinst, a cellist, and a percussionist, The Red Paintings have a dynamic and intriguing line-up. The
Walls EP is undeniably The Red Paintings at their best. The atmospheric, lush strings wrap around frontman Trash McSweeny's swirling vocals and intricate guitar lines, which makes The Red Paintings' music all the more impressive. The
Walls EP is like any other EP: it's short and only features a small handful of tracks. However, it is essential listening and is arguably the most remarkable EP of 2005.
There are two versions of the lead single
Walls on this EP. The album opener begins with a beautiful orchestral passage, shortly followed by Trash's guitar and vocals. The opening verse is a combination of somber and mellow, but builds to a crescendo with Trash switching from single notes to power chords. Lyrically, Trash appears to be at a crossroads on the track: he spins his tale through a metaphor of feeling enclosed by walls in a failing or already-dead relationship. For instance, he says he's "been misunderstood in a world of negatives" and it's been "eating nothing but [his] head." Trash's tale appropriately hits its apex in the chorus, where he sings to the girl he loves, "I don't know if you're holding on to what you've got; I'm so tired, I'll be holding on to this sweet love." The passion that the violin and cello add make
Walls a fantastic listening experience, and the energy exhibited from the percussion during the heavier passages of the track give the some an extremely complete feel. The second version of
Walls, astutely titled
Walls (Alternative Ending), is about a minute longer than the album opener, with a blustery, distorted guitar and percussion passage.
Two additional highlights to the
Walls duo include
The Streets Fell Into My Window and
Mad World. The former track is one of the longer tracks on the album, beginning and ending with readings from
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The cello opens the track, and Trash begins with a passage from the story. Eventually, cellist Wayne Jennings becomes more and more deranged in his reading, a la The Mad Hatter, and the instruments follow suit. Pounding, tom-heavy percussion builds the song into another brief crescendo, but the song halts and quiets down for the verses, with Trash returning to vocals.
The Red Paintings' literary references do not stop with
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, however. He also includes allusions to the
Maus books by Art Spiegelman, which are graphic novels describing the trauma of the Holocaust. In his books, Spiegelman draws the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats, the French as frogs, the Americans as dogs, and so on down the line. So what does this allusion have to do with The Red Paintings? In the second verse, Trash croons, "Little mouse-y, what did you see? Hitler's body was a raincheck given to you, now you sit and wait with nothing to do." The choruses are again the heavier aspects of the track, but the most moving is the bridge, where there is a cello solo to accompany Trash's repeated mantra of "Now I see it, it's a doorway to my love." Shortly after, the song again erupts into a feverish energy that The Red Paintings have nailed to perfection.
Mad World is a cover song, more akin to the Gary Jules version at the end of
Donnie Darko than the original composers of the track, Tears For Fears. The Red Paintings' take on this track is significantly slower than the Tears For Fears cut, with Trash alternating between a small number of chords on an acoustic guitar. Where
Mad World absolutely shines is in the violin and cello: right from the beginning, there is a distinct cello solo that adds a breathtaking dimension to the song. Where Tears For Fears had a lot of energy, Gary Jules transformed to be more elegiac, and The Red Paintings applied that to their quintet with the strings and acoustic guitar. Trash's vocals are hauntingly brilliant towards the track's conclusion, where he sings the familiar "Went to school and no one knew me, no one knew me-e-e... hello, teacher, tell me: what's my lesson? Look right through me, look right through you and me."
The album's conclusion, entitled
Signals From the Frontier, is a very obscure track that features no music, but serves as a utility to wind the album down. Reminiscent of an outerspace-themed "Touch-And-Play" game, the robotic voice spurts off facts about the solar system, and the hypothetical player guesses correctly each time. The music that supports the game's transmission sounds like glockenspiels or the music played from a baby's mobile that hangs above its crib.
In short, The Red Paintings are an engaging Australian quintet who, if they continue to release Extended Plays all the time instead of full-length albums, will enjoy insurmountable success if they continue to write songs at the level they portrayed on the
Walls EP. The majesty and brilliance of the violin and cello on this EP cannot possibly be overstated. The orchestral duo of Ellen Stancombe and Wayne Jennings is absolutely incredible, adding a surreal and beautiful dimension to The Red Paintings' music. From the finger-picked violin on
Dead Adults to the beautiful cello solos on
Mad World, Stancombe and Jennings arrange sweeping, delicate orchestral passages to complement Trash's vocals and guitar. On a couple tracks on the album, such as
Mad World and
Portrait of a Dead Soul, there is an obvious lack of bass and percussion on the album, but it plays to the strengths, not weaknesses, of The Red Paintings. Additionally, Trash can combine light and dark into his vocals and lyrics; for instance,
Walls is a blatant love-and-relationships track, whereas
Portrait of a Dead Soul is his explanation as to why there is no pain or suffering after death. Ultimately, the
Walls EP is absolutely critical and vital listening to all comers: it should be a crime if the beautiful orchestral accompaniments and instrumentation go unheard.
A+
Jom recommends:
Walls (both versions)
The Streets Fell Into My Window
Mad World
Portrait of a Dead Soul
