Search - Gerard Mchugh :: Tales of Madness & Horror

Art Rock

Lee Armstrong | Winterville, NC United States | 04/10/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Gerard McHugh's association with the Indigo Girls has resulted in another wonderful CD. He is a little crazy, but he's not boring! "American Dinner Party" with its lumbering guitar part is an offbeat jewel of cosmopolitan American life, "Have some humus & some pita while we talk about our trip to Costa Rica." The light pop hooks work well with McHugh's breezy vocals on the offbeat lyrics briskly sung on "Canopy Man," "the jungle that you invite us to is a pile of picked-clean bones." "Hi Speed Chase" is a Los Angeles rocker with a repetitive guitar line complete with sirens & police shouts. "Supersoul Psychic" has
Byrds-like chiming guitars and a great pop melody, "She was a gypsy voodoo queen living in the bayou of New Orlean." The most fun comes on "Swamp Thing," musically kind of a cross between Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" and Mancini's "Theme from Peter Gun." It sounds like a great soundtrack for a B movie. Guitars wash U2-like on "Smog Filled Skies," "Atlanta in the fall ain't no good time, strip joints grow like grapes upon the vine." My favorite track is "Tieneman Square." A banjo picks through this more acoustic folk tune, "I don't fully comprehend their cause; still to me you're more than just a TV tragedy; your 3 weeks of freedom opened into an eternity to me." And the addictive chorus "gathering spiritual in Tieneman Square" is one you'll hum after the CD's stopped playing. "Wires of Wings" is an odd melody which brought to mind for me the Beatles' "Blue Jay Way." "Lonely Time Friend" is a slow meditative song where the gentleness of Gerard's vocal tugs at your heartstrings, "I will go, I will flow to a place of higher light." The eulogy "Virginia" references Poe's "The Raven," "The happiness we had ups & leaves me haunted; I'm wandering the streets drunk & worn & wanting you." (Hope I got that lyric right!) It's a beautiful ballad. The CD closes with the really strange thundering rocker "Mr. Baiter" which I understand to pose the interesting philosophical question of whether the universe is the result of God's masturbation, "We're all of one Creator." It's probably the only song in my collection that rhymes "creator" with "masturbator." At times, "Tales of Madness & Horror" is lyrically strange, but I love this CD because it is varied; the songs are about something with each being unique; and I can listen to it repeatedly without getting bored. Don't miss it!"