Blonde Redhead - Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
(Touch and Go)
Blonde Redhead's fifth full length continues their trend of experimentation.
Wait! Hold on! Don't take this record off your to-do list yet! You haven't
let me finish my thought! Blonde Redhead's fifth full length, Melody of
Certain Damaged Lemons, sees the band experimenting with different, more
pop-based instrumentation, showing a renewed emphasis in making catchy yet still
arty hooks. Whereas their last full length was experimental to the point
of sounding shapeless and, at times, abrasive, the means of ...Damaged Lemons'
experimentation is to make the music more irresistible. All right? Good.
While I've already used the word "pop" once before, and you will undoubtedly
hear in several sources that Blonde Redhead is more pop on this album, feel
rest-assured that, other than two exceptions, these pop experiments work as
accessories to the Blonde Redhead sound you know and love, not total makeovers.
The couple of exceptions are two songs sung by Kazu, the first being a Blonde
Redhead version of synth pop, "This is Not," and the second being the piano
ballad "For the Damaged." While either of these songs would seem out of
place on, say, Fake Can Be Just As Good, Kazu's lilting (on "This is Not") and
wilting (on "For the Damaged") deliveries make the songs very endearing.
The songs of Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons cover the stages of love
and how it can shift from seemingly frustrating and impossible to perfect
and never-ending and back again when practiced by damaged, imperfect souls.
Being "damaged" is a central theme, a song "Loved Despite of Great Faults,"
sung by Amedeo about the moments when love seems never-ending, is directly
preceded by "Hated Because of Great Qualities," sung by Kazu on the torment
due to an accident that breaks a lover's trust. This couplet is followed by
Kazu's synth pop song of an old, unrequited love that reappears at an
inopportune time, which itself leads into "A Cure" sung by Amedeo about being
compared to another man who he sees as a phony, leading to the self-realization
that he may be a bit too similar to the other man. "A Cure," musically, is
interesting because it is one of the few recent Blonde Redhead tracks to
feature a bass, and its only percussion is a syncopated clack-clack over the
chorus. The song is the standout track of the album with its meowing guitars
and impassioned vocals, backed by Kazu.
Is this Blonde Redhead's best album? I don't think so, but it is a very good
one. While it comes close to (if not equaling) the pure emotion of La Mia
Vita Violenta, it doesn't quite match the musical intensity of that album and
Fake Can Be Just As Good. No doubt, though, it belongs in the same category as
those two great albums.
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