Saturday, June 15, 2024

Julie Christmas : "Ridiculous and Full of Blood"







If you do not know Ms. Christmas from Made out of Babies then I am going to just go ahead and assume you know her from the album she did with Cult of Luna. The musicians she recruited to help her with this album provide a reasonable expectation of what sonic zip codes it's going take us in, as they include the guitarist from Cult of Luna, the drummer from Spotlights, KEN Mode's bassist, and John from Candiria adding guitars as well. So pretty every genre with post in front of it. Julie adds a playfully unhinged enthusiasm to her vocal performance, that reminds me a little of Rasputina. But with less baroque wistfulness. 

The first two songs are straightforward almost rock songs and the more profound experimentation does not occur until "The Ash" which lumbers like a robot coming to life. The angular ambiance works well to counterbalance her more emotive performance. If Bjork were to dabble in rock music that rocker harder than the Sugarcudes the results might be similar. "Think Skin " hits hard, with a burly bass and her more screamed vocals. She does not commit to her full-on growl until "End of the World" which wanders into more sludge-infested waters, though with rock hooks worked in. At 48 her voice continues to hold up well.  "Silver Dollars' covers more ground, but is less focused, though very true to who she is. 

"Kids" is more hopeful, almost coming closer to an Arcade Fire-like celebration of sound. 'the Lighthouse" wanders back to a more reflective groove. This gives her voice more room to be fully nuanced. It builds into a heavier explosion, that feels like a 90s soft-to-loud moment. "Blast " is more chaotic and carries noise -rock tendencies. The last song looms like a storm as it moves with a doomy trudge. Her vocals dictate the dynamics. Lyrically I can appreciate the "no god or heaven" sentiments. Overall this album is a great listen, she is true to her creative identity and always full of surprises, I will give it a 9.5, and see how it grows on me. 


pst287

No comments:

Post a Comment