Review Summary: Is Doof bad? Yeah blud, he bad.
Sometimes in this life we'll go to great lengths to show how people have got us pegged all wrong, that there's more to us than at first meets the eye. In the early years of their career the Tiger Lillies were always classed as something of a one note joke, but this all changed in 1999; the band's first stage musical collaboration 'Shockheaded Peter' received widespread acclaim and even saw the Lillies snatch two Laurence Olivier awards to boot. From hereon out the band would always keep one foot in mainstream theatre and would attempt ever more ambitious literary interpretations on the boards. As great as this sort of accomplishment is there's often an equally potent, inverse instinct that also resides within us all...one that tells us to play up to the preconceptions of others and behave exactly how we believe they expect us to, only upping the extremity levels and shoving it right down their gullets for good measure. So it's telling that in the same year as the band took the family friendly 'Shockheaded Peter' on the road they also released this, quite possibly their very most base, disgusting and intentionally antagonistic album to date.
Where to start with 'Bad Blood + Blasphemy'? At the most shocking inclusion in the track list would seem to make sense, ergo it's time to talk about a certain notorious 'Car Crash'. Remember that release date, 1999, any famous automobile accidents in the years preceding...yes, you've got it! Lady Di, or as Martyn Jaques introduces her over mechanical distortion 'goooooodbyyyyyyeeeeeeee Englishhh Roooooooose!!' Elsewhere his lyrics take a less poetic slant and focus on the forensic details, describing the composition of the concrete pillar, the projection of the various shards of shattered glass and the nature of the internal injuries suffered by 'the people's princess'. To the all important question; is it a more fitting tribute than 'Candle in the Wind'? To which I reply 'does Sir Elton have a non-existent gag reflex?'...of course, and sure enough this tune is much better on every conceivable level.
Elsewhere the Lillies try to up the ante with the sickness of their subject matter and jettison all subtlety; opener 'Bad' documents the inner workings of the 'best' paedophile ring in town who've successfully acquired a 'chain of gals' from local schools, as well as from their own families; 'Start a Fire' is a Monty Python-esque ditty about a man who loves nature 'because it makes things so dry' allowing him to burn the countryside at will; 'Rapist' is a sombre affair concerning a woman who's raped by a man with HIV and then shunned by society; and 'Killier' is a sort of sea shanty about regretting having wasted your best years when with a little effort and imagination you could have easily become a homicidal maniac cannibal and God among mere mortal 'filthy dogs'.
There are also more than a few moments where all this humour and depravity takes second billing to some surprisingly powerful song writing. The epic eight minute mini opera 'Maria' comes out of left field and slaps the listener around the chops, ceremonial South American sounding instrumentation conjuring up a dark 'Temple of Doom' vibe as Jaques gently builds up his singing until he's intoning 'Satan!' at the top of his lungs. Never has the combination of pan pipes and accordion sounded so evil. 'Crack of Doom' is equally morbid but far livelier, and is easily one of the band's greatest attempts at a Bavarian folk ho down. If ever there was one song title this band had to make sure they backed with an exceptional song then it's 'Clown', and sure enough this dark jazz tinged ode to the suicidal face-painted jester of the title is another clear album standout.
This album was always destined to play second fiddle to 'Shockheaded Peter', after all, that work effectively reinvented the band and increased their level of fame tenfold. It's important to remember though that such facts don't necessarily add up to 'Bad Blood + Blasphemy' being inherently weaker than its more lauded neighbour. Far from it, in fact this album should be regarded as a triple strength (and triple x) distillation of what the early incarnation of the Lillies were all about, and of course there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
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