 Fever
to Tell
Didn't your mother ever tell you it's not
nice to sneer? I mean Miss Polly Jean
Harvey wouldn't even yelp like this, even if it was her
mind to do so. Karen O sounds like an insane art school banshee
at times, her off-kilter voice barely under her control. She
hee-hees and hoo-hoos a lot and kind of squeals and groans all
in a riot grrrrrl fashion strained through the cute chick fronting
a garage band filter. Thought her throaty singing, along with
the music, is aggressive and front and center, they can't help
but sound more hipster than churlish fuck you gutter punks that
I'm sure somewhere they wish they had in them. Part of that
sound is playing fast and loose with the idea that bands need
to say something in order to be taken seriously. The majority
of their lyrics are nonsensical words that sound good in the
context of the song (listen to ‘Pin' as a good example of total
nonsense), but fail to leave one with much more than an impression
that Karen O is selling something besides her band's output.
That said, there are some extremely compelling and amazing songs
on this album, including “Black Tongue,” and their most famous
song to date, “Maps,” among others. This is a pretty great album
all in all, with its bluster and ballsy chick rock, but it's
clear after recording this album that the next one will have
to zag into more controlled territory lest they become a one-trick
pony. |
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