I have been accused by The Wife of only liking music made by men. She thinks that I have some sort of pre-disposition to tuning out music made by women. I argue that the primary reason I tend to gravitate to the male-centric music is mostly because I can't sing that high in the car driving to and from work. But that doesn't mean when a good record by a female fronted band comes along I ignore it.
Such is the case with WARPAINT. This all girl collective make grandiose, somewhat maudlin art rock that would appeal to those who long for the day of SIOUXSIE AND THE BASNHEES. The debut album, "The Fool", would not be out of place if it had been released at the height of the goth movement. "Set Your Arms Down" glides along a shimmery guitar line that sounds as if it was left over from LUSH. The record explodes with the single "Warpaint", which comes off like a refugee from vintage 4AD records. "Undertow" benefits from the meshed dual female vocal approach to give the song a swimming feel to it. "Bees" takes advantage of a manufactured drum beat and a big fat bass line to offset vocalist Emily Kokal's ethereal vocals. The record slows down in the second half and adopts a more medieval chamber music sound which, in my opinion, is not as captivating as the first part. But it is still full of interesting musical ideas.
Somewhere my inner CURE fan is rejoicing that I took some time with this record. It is in no way a summer record, but something tells me come winter I will be driving down the freeway trying to mimic these vocals. It just won't sound as good as what these girls can do.
(mp3) Warpaint -- Warpaint
No comments:
Post a Comment