Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 16, 1992, edition 1 / Page 12
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Page 4 DTH Omnibus ' Thursday April 16, 1992 Out with the Bunnymen, in with the Ian Ian McCulloch Mysterio Sire Records 12 cho is dead, long live Echo. Ian McCulloch puts the depression of Echo's break up behind him with the new release Mysterio, his second solo effort. And while the first solo album, Candkkmd, pleased the fans and critics, Mysterioshould blow them all away. After the disintegration of Echo and the Bunnymen the result of McCulloch's painful decision to leave Ian released Candleland, an intro spective catharsisofsorts. McCulloch presented Candkkmd as a truly inde pendent disc, as he played nearly all of the instruments. Candleland bristled with acute pain, and the change in direction on Mysterio reveals a rejuvenated McCulloch. What's more, the com parisons to earl ier works of Echo seem to ring true; Mysterio pre-empts the original sound of Crocodile. Mark Saunders, Henry Priestman and Robin Guthrie, of the Cocteau Twins, join McCulloch in producing the new disc, while McCulloch del egates much of the instrumentation toother musicians. John McEvoy and Mike Mooney on the guitar, Edgar Jones on bass and Steve Humphreys pounding the skins add to the cre ative talents of McCulloch as vocal ist and guitarist. Elizabeth Fraser, also of the Cocteau Twins, backs the band with her noteworthy vocals. What's so great about Mysterio? Simply put, McCulloch has created a musical masterpiece worthy of atten tion. Even if you didn't like Echo (I didn't), you can't help but like Mysterio. While Candleland empha- Pray The Church's next effort The Church PriestAura Arista Records 12 The Church has reneged on the promise suggested by their last album, Gold After noon Fix, with the release of PriestAura. Cold Afternoon Fix appeared to be a transitional ef fort meant to link their earlier, moody sound to a stronger, song-oriented direction. It covered many stylistic bases, with a limited degree of success ( the best attempts being "Terra Nova Cain" and "City"), but despite its failings, it seemed to be a positive step forward for the band. Yet, The Church has, on PriestAura, smoothed the extremes of G.A.F.'s Matt Morgan Mlt,ft' sized the painful message through minimal use of instrumentation, each number on Mysterio offers a rich, full nearly unfathomable depth of sound. McCulloch opens the effort with "Magical World," a free-fall of sound. The wandering guitar fills and the insistent bass line refuse to meet until the chorus. The resulting tension and resolution highlight McCulloch's beg ging "Is it really such a magical world ?" until the overwhelming conclusion. "Close Your Eyes" follows jauntily behind "Magical World," with McCulloch's droning vocal envelop ing the composition. Nearly perfect, the guitars, keyboards, bells, backing vocals and jazz-riff rhythm are only complete with McCulloch's mono tone. Although the disco beat of "Dug For Love" initially intimidates, the song infects the listener with McCulloch's strangely romantic vi sion. "All my love buried it deepand you dug it up," combines with sway ing synth chords and a driving bass line to roll the listener along, helpless before the surprising power of the effort. "Drip, honey, drip, drip your inno cence'Cause I'm feeling guilty to night."Honeydrip'scommanding lyr ics and cutting guitar chords alter nate between lulling the listener into a false sense of security and forcing some sort of response from the audi ence. McCulloch wanders aimlessly for four seconds before driving straight away into "Damnation," a 1950s, Chuck Berry-style guitar expose. The first four seconds are the only "aim less" sound here. "I'm changin', I'm changin'No more, the stranger." McCulloch leaves the depression of J on Allen mini quality curve into a bland arc, one that uses atmosphere to mask its weak songwriting. The rules have changed with PriestAura. Now, The Church has less pressure to live up to their hit "Under The Milky Way," (from Stor fish), the one song which appears to have determined their song-oriented direction on the last album. PriestAuracould very well be a cyni cal response to G . A.F.'s lack of com mercial success through its own mid tempo inaccessibility, yet such a re sponse backfires in the wake of frus tratingly insipid material. PriestAura runs some painfully similar grooves through a murky au ral grinder, keeping the material at a Candleland behind for good. For a change of pace, McCulloch twists his remake of Leonard Cohen's "Lover Lover Lover" into a Spanish flavored masterpiece, reminiscent more of the Gypsy Kings than Echo and the Bunnymen. Only the urgent vocals and the dance beat remind the listener exactly where he is. Concep tually a tad unusual, Ian McCulloch makes "Lover Lover Lover" one the best pieces of the album. "Webbed" finds McCulloch on some sort of mental anesthetic, wan dering vocally through the composi tion, like a fascinated child. A fairly good song on its own, "Webbed" fails in comparison to the better numbers on the disc. The stop-go "Pomegranate" finds McCulloch no less musically con fused than on "Webbed." The dark, brooding bassguitar combination serves as counterpoint to the dreamy keyboards of the chorus, all support ing McCulloch's determined, even angry, vocal to make the difference. McCulloch changes direction again with "Vibor Blue," a winning experiment in elongated sound. The acoustic guitar and drumbeat ground the stretched, bounced and re bounded electric guitar strings, remi niscent of early, Boy-era U2. McCulloch's drone pulls a bewildered listener through a strange mix of sound and Spanglish lyrics. The influence of the Cocteau Twins' RobinGuthrie shines through the musical approach of "Heaven's Gate." Except for the chorus, which belongs resolutely in McCulloch's pop world, this could be yet another sur realistic Cocteau offering. Elizabeth Fraser's vocals tend to emphasize the connection, but the piece further demonstrates Ian McCulloch's glori ous creativity. "Take love as you find it." Finally, "In My Head" closes Mysterio as a dark, Cure-like distilled emotion. The repetitive guitar fills, constant level of blandness. The band itself isn't the same with new drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, although his presence doesn't really affect The Church's low-key sound. This "sound," so integral to The Church's identity, remains the same with the exception of a more pro nounced keyboard presence. Guitar ists Peter Koppes and Marty Willson Piper lay down the same shimmering and glassy guitar parts as always, and theirsix-stringeffortspeallikechimes throughout the songs. Steven Kilbey still sings in his distinctive low, whis pering style, and his beefy bass play ing is pulse-like and insistent. In terms of sonic presence, The Church present nothing unusual, and their refusal to stretch the limits of the "sound" is the album's fatal flaw. The album's assembly-line ap proach to songwriting creates some simplistic melodies and grooves, al though no song is particularly bad. The contemplative dark bass lines and bassdrum poundings drive the work until its end, seemingly too tired to continue. Not a terribly representative means of closing the second solo effort, but good nonetheless. Altogether, Mysterio amazes this reviewer, and fails to earn five blobs only because it will not change the surpasses new album The album fails not in its presenta tion of individual songs, but in its conception of how to present them. Those songs which are least depen dent on mood to make their point (such as "Ripple" and "Kings") are the best, while the worst songs tend to sleepwalk through their chords ("Swan Lake" and "Aura"). Unfortu nately, the great majority of the songs don't escape these lethargic confines. Kilbey's lyrics, while occasionally inspired in past efforts, are remark ably dull on the album. His subject matter is undirected and pointlessly abstract. In"Mistress,"hesings:"And another thingThat halo you wear on your headI haven't seen one of those for yearsWhere have you been ?", and his confused babbling doesn't let up. Even decent lyrics ('lustre") ringfalse in comparison to his better earlier work, especially on Starfish, and are the product of a lack of inspiration. The Church could take a couple of Ian McCullough face of alternative music, regardless of how incredible an effort it is. The significanceof Mysterio ultimately lies in the effect it should have on McCulloch's solo career, but that shouldn't be important to you right now. Who cares about the esoteric compositional issues? Just buy it and enjoy the music. pointers from The Cure, a group that excels at making music that is som nolent yet not devoid of musical character. They should analyze their successes (again, Starfish, which is a fine album with a myriad of textures) and rethink their songwriting pro cess before their next recording. Al though one should usually credit a group for trying to avoid self-repetition, The Church has taken the wrong step entirely on PriestAura, and have shifted from a good, multi denominational band to on over bearing bore. forget It wait for a bargain bin buy tape it from a friend buy ft : buy two copies
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 16, 1992, edition 1
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