A subtle, tricky, curve-ball from the Ubus
M. L. Johnson | Auburn, AL USA | 07/29/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is the second installment from the current incarnation of Pere Ubu, which kicked off wonderfully with "Ray Gun Suitcase" in the mid-90's. Where that effort was sharp and focused (almost vehement in its psychosis), this one is more subtle and nuanced, with even more stylistic variations. As the needle touches down onto the vinyl (OK, I'm old - it's actually the laser bouncing off of the disc, but that doesn't sound as good, so sue me), we're treated to the booming, thundering, sonically pleasing bombast of "Woolie Bullie". Wow, have the boys gone all populist on us??? But wait, now an extended one-note organ solo appears out of nowhere. Whew, that was a close one! Now I feel better in that I'm reassured that I'm truly listening to a Pere Ubu album. After this, the music just keeps changing colors like a chameleon. We're treated to the pensive twang of "Highwaterville", the depressive shuffle of "SAD.txt", the frenetic chaos of "Urban Lifestyle", the atmospheric and spooky "Silent Spring", the crazed eccentricity of "Mr. Wheeler", and so on. The next part of the album gets back into more familiar territory, with "Muddy Waters", "Drive", and "Monday Morning" representing what I think of as more "typical" Pere Ubu songs (and I'm not even sure what I actually mean by that). As soon as I state this, I'm forced to qualify it further since "Drive" starts off sounding like something from an early Talk Talk album! A Pere Ubu album is never anything you're going to completely get on the first listen; and that may be more true for this one than for any other in their catalog. After a while, you just let the sonic variety lift you up and drop you down, like a buoy on a stormy sea. I even like the quasi-pan-cultural ramblings of "The Duke's Saharan Ambitions" (Could this be a glancing political statement aimed at the first Iraq war from a 1998 perspective, or perhaps a premonition about W's future Iraq quagmire??? Probably not, but it's fun to imbue Pere Ubu with shamanic powers). One beef I've always had with Pere Ubu is that they never seemed to know how to end an album properly - with a strong finale that leaves you wanting more. Well, that's been taken care of here with the excellent, hard-rocking "Wheelhouse", which is easily the best album closer they've done since "Codex" off of "Dub Housing". Sometimes, when the mood is right, I even let the disc keep going so I can chill out to the extended jam of the hidden track "My Name Is..." (Could this be a glancing, precognitive dig at Eminem??? Probably not, but it sure would be fun to pit Dave Thomas against Eminem in a stare-down contest for charity). Well, if you'll all excuse me now, I feel the sudden urge to start my own antique light bulb collection."
