Hello kids, and welcome to a new edition of
insert clever show title here. Today, we're talking about novelties in music. I think it's only fair that we kick off with the zany intrigue that is Rasputina. With their tightly fitted corsets, heavy vibrato, cellorific gothic edge, they are the perfect topic for today's discussion.
Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, this ever changing lineup of musicians is actually quite an interesting concoction. Melora Creager, head vocalist / 1st chair cellist / mad woman, and cool-cat drummer Jonathon Tebeest, are the only two people who never leave. They've been making records since 1996, with their all-gothed-up
Thanks for the Ether. All these years they've been quietly under the radar, collecting many devoted fans. They've always been the type of band you'd think of as a novelty. But this time around, 11 years later, with their newest album,
Oh Perilous World, things should finally change.
Don't overlook them as a novelty. The album is crazy, weird, zany, and really really out-there, but behind that facade is some interesting and compelling work.
The album kicks off with the thumping of a drum, before the cello and dulcimer kick in.
"1816, the Year Without a Summer," is one of the best tracks, which contains lyrics about the true event of 1816, ("It'd go from ninety-five degrees to freezing within hours / A brutal struggle for the people and the starving livestock"). Creager's vocals are much purer this time, and you can tell the production and recording are much sharper. Jonathon makes some vocal appearances too, and some piano. The other new thing you'll notice, is that her previously overwrought vibrato has tightened. It's tighter, and faster, making it more delightful to listen to. It doesn't sound as if it's weighted down and slugging along.
The album contains many moments where the music will shift immensely. This can make it sound scatter shot, but it really adds a nice spontaneity.
"Choose Me For Champion," which is insisted to be adapted from a Bin Laden speech, has a jutting rhythm and eventually cuts into a soaring "Pitcairn Woman's Chorus" (which is probably just her and John.)
-- Oh, yes, I forgot to mention. There is a loose story along the album, and the Pitcairn Islands occur a couple times. --
The other main occurrence of switches is
"Incident in a Medical Clinic," an unbelievably odd ride of Mary Todd Lincoln rambling about... umm... I'm not really sure. But according to the doctor, "almost everybody has snail fever." Yeah...
Moving along.... From the odd ramblings of
"Oh, Bring Back the Egg Unbroken," which depicts people gathering eggs to be king, ("You bring the egg unbroken back / You are the king,") to the Katrina dirge
"We Stay Behind," with some waving dulcimer, this album covers many topics and does it cryptically, and brilliantly.
"Cage in a Cave," is the most normal song, with a catchy, almost poppy feel, about Fletcher Christian and his hideaway cave. It's one of the best put-together tracks. It sounds more complete than most of the songs. However, two tracks stand in the way of it being the most complete and put-together track:
The best song on the album,
"In Old Yellowcake," is the most complete and thought-out song in their entire catalog. According to the liner notes, it contains imagery of the destruction of Fallujah, a city in Iraq ("We find crutches in the corner / And bullets on the shelves.") The song contains guest vocal-work from Sara Bowman, who's beautiful tone is left alone without music to sing the aforementioned lines, and the best vocal work from the other two as well.
The other tracks is
"A Retinue of Moons / The Infidel is Me." This is a great 7-minute song, with imagery of icy moons that illuminate the land, and mysterious injections and breakdowns. It contains the most normal moments of vocal, lyrical, and instrumental proportions. And after, we get the bittersweet closer
"The Pruning." With its pretty cello work and gorgeous, shaky, nervous vocals singing about apocalypse (I think?) ("Oh perilous garden, forever dying,") and some nice little melodies.
This album is definitely worth your time, you just have to get by the weirdness. It's more initial then way down deep. That doesn't really make sense, but what I mean is the weirdness goes away once you accept it. This is their most complete sounding record to date, with some of the best lyrics she's ever written, created from news bits compiled in vast notebooks over 2 years. There really isn't a bad moment in this work of art. Go out and try it, you may surprise yourself.
But yes, Melora Creager is a madwoman.
:)
Track Picks:
1816, the Year Without a Summer
Cage in a Cave
In Old Yellowcake
A Retinue of Moons / The Infidel is Me
