Blonde Redhead 23

23 starts out strong with 23. I like the symmetry of that sentence. Go, check it out and see what you think. Neat, huh? Where was I? Oh yeah, the new Blonde Redhead. I was actually about to make a snarky comment about how the album kicked ass right out of the gate and then started to flag a bit only three songs in on "The Dress", a fairly moribund tune which is only partially redeemed by a cool keyboard riff. But then, I happened to be listening to "The Dress" at that moment and I got distracted.

I'm new to Blonde Redhead, but they tell me that this band has been plugging away since 1993! Who knew? However, it didn't take long for me to suss out what they're up to. File it under the heading Soundscapes. The guitars are suitably ethereal, the drums are driving, and the vocals have the requisite dose of otherworldliness. Overall, they do the whole soundscape bit to a tee; the thing sounds terrific. At their best they boast a propulsive beat, lovely vocals (predominately Kazu Makino's), and lyrical melodies. Better yet, they seem to know their way around a chord progression. Check out the dramatic move from minor to major 7 on the chorus of the titular song. Or the similar shifts on the next song, Dr. Strangeluv. This one-two punch had me hoping for a bit more than what I got on the rest of the disc.

That's not to say it's a failure. On the contrary, 23 is, for the most part, an enjoyable listen. As I mentioned, the whole thing sounds great, and the melodies keep you interested, but very few moments transcend the way the openers do. It's mostly a collection of decent tunes, polished to a blinding sheen. I admit I was amused by the inclusion of a little "Atom Heart Mother" horn section midway into SW, one of the better remaining songs. That was a nice touch and completely unexpected. Overall, the disc suffers a little from the Broken Social Scene syndrome, in which a decent disc is hyped to high heaven just because it sounds amazing. Don't get me wrong, I've written articles extolling the virtues of the right Sound, but you need a little more to acquire staying power.

I don't mean to take this out on the band and this album in particular. It's really pretty decent, and if you are so inclined you should readily drop 10 bucks on it. But we write these reviews in context, and the context here is a round of rousing plaudits from respectable sources. So forgive me if I sound a little cranky.

On my ipod playlist, the last tune trails off into Blondie's classic "Heart of Glass", an unfortunate juxtaposition but no one ever said life was fair. The comparison is aggravated by the fact that the last tune on my downloaded version of 23 is an 8 minute bonus track, a marketing convention I am thoroughly sick of. Why do bands allow record companies to tack on songs that weren't good enough to make the album, so that THIS becomes the last thing you hear? Whatever happened to finishing an album with "You Can't Always Get What You Want" or "Desolation Row", so that you leave the album spent by the experience? Simpler times, I suppose. Who today is going to have the 'nads to buck the system the way Patti Smith just did on VH1's broadcast of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, in which she performed Rock N Roll Nigger, staring directly into the cold heart of the corporate beast shouting "nigger, nigger, nigger!" until the veins popped out of her forehead? Maybe a wiser career move would have been "n-word, n-word, n-word!"