Blonde Redhead
Misery is a Butterfly (4AD 2049)

Misery is a Butterfly feels like being shrunk down and trapped inside a labyrinthine haunted dollhouse full of secret passages, trap doors, spiderwebbed corners, and creepy whispers coming from behind the walls. There's a real sense of psychological dread to it, as surreal as a forboding nightmare in which the source of your horror never shows its face.

With its weird Gothic (as in H.P. Lovecraft, not, like, Black Tape For a Blue Girl) vibe and swirl of strings, harpsichord, guitars, and pained vocals, it's like Blonde Redhead somehow managed to get inside The Cure's "Lullaby" and discover all sorts of songs lurking within it, songs that bend and twist and slip from your grasp, like reflections in a Hall of Mirrors. Melodically, it's some kind of middle ground between Dead Can Dance at their mellowest and some sleazy Italian softcore horror flick from 1975. Like, if Burnt Offerings had been an Emanuelle movie – simultaneously erotic and terrifying.

Main singer Kazu Makino crafted her vocal parts and lyrics while recovering from a broken jaw after falling from a horse (!), so her stuff is ponderous and strained, like the moan of a soul caught in Purgatory, reaching for relief in either life or death. It's gorgeous and totally arresting. Amadeo Pace, the male singer, contributes a few vocals too, and his are a bit harder to listen to. He's no natural singer (think Dean Wareham from Galaxie 500, being tortured), but he wrenches so much emotion from what he sings, it's hard not to be drawn in anyway. And a couple of his moments (especially "Falling Man") are the best on the record.

Makino in spots sounds like Björk, most of all on the title track – but it's the good Björk, not the arbitrary "experimental" Björk making lots of sound while never really finding a melody. "Elephant Woman" (the opener) is a staggering song, clearly demonstrating right off the bat that this record is going to be on Blonde Redhead's terms, not yours. It's fantastic shit, and the album doesn't ever drop off from there.

Misery reminds me most of Damon & Naomi with Ghost, another record that didn't get the attention it deserved because the indie press who should have supported it were too fixated on the past to appreciate what was really going down. In both cases, the band had released by far its boldest and most perfect album, only to be summed up in terms of what came before. Blonde Redhead may have been cooler when they were newer, but they've never been better than right now.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Timothy Hay