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Pat Monahan's Hairy Chest · 03-08-2017, 09:37 PM

(Note on ratings: I rate from one, meaning unlistenable, to seven, meaning perfect, in half-point increments.)

Bitter River (2007), Pygmy Lush

What would happen if hardcore punk, indie folk, and post-rock were united in a single, 58-minute album? With their 2007 release Bitter River, northern Virginia act Pygmy Lush lend that question a raw and atmospheric, if sometimes disappointing, answer. The album’s first track, “Nonsensical Tremor,” delivers overdriven screaming and an angular, wailed guitar hook, each within 37 seconds; following on its heels is the track “Hurt Everything,” which, with its clean, folky chords and dark, confessional lyrics, takes a tone entirely different from that established by track one.

The album is punctuated by these jarring changes in genre, in which folk songs alternate with punk songs on a practically one-for-one basis. The end result, while aptly disturbing and demented, still feels like an experiment gone awry. If Pygmy Rush had stuck to either folk or punk, or had tried to mix the two genres within songs, rather than just among them, the album could have enjoyed a much-needed cohesiveness. Unreconciled as they are in Bitter River, however, folk and punk only tear each other down.

The album has its moments, most notably with “Hurt Everything” and with its angrier, identically titled reprise. “The Boys of Swift Creek Reservoir,” another eerie song, prompted some research on my part; I’ve gathered it tells the pitch-dark tale of two thirteen-year-old boys who drowned in 2006 when their canoe capsized over Swift Creek Reservoir in Chesterfield County, Virginia. All three of the aforementioned songs draw heavily on a dark variety of folk, using wistful arrangements of clean, simple chords to produce something haunting, heartfelt, and beautiful.

The album’s longest track, a 25-minute instrumental called “September Song,” is likewise enjoyable; its ambient soundscapes manage to provide a much more fitting component to the album than do the screamed, feedback-ridden punk tracks, whose hooks feel dry and formulaic. Overall, it seems Pygmy Rush do their best work while singing softly and playing modestly. So while a whole fourth of Bitter River feels disparate, formative, and overwrought, the other three fourths are a marvel of atmosphere.

Final rating: 5/7 (Good).

03-08-2017, 09:37 PM	#6 (permalink)
Pat Monahan's Hairy Chest Groupie Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Pat Monahan's upper body. Posts: 10	Wednesday Review: Bitter River (2007), Pygmy Lush (Note on ratings: I rate from one, meaning unlistenable, to seven, meaning perfect, in half-point increments.) Bitter River (2007), Pygmy Lush What would happen if hardcore punk, indie folk, and post-rock were united in a single, 58-minute album? With their 2007 release Bitter River, northern Virginia act Pygmy Lush lend that question a raw and atmospheric, if sometimes disappointing, answer. The album’s first track, “Nonsensical Tremor,” delivers overdriven screaming and an angular, wailed guitar hook, each within 37 seconds; following on its heels is the track “Hurt Everything,” which, with its clean, folky chords and dark, confessional lyrics, takes a tone entirely different from that established by track one. The album is punctuated by these jarring changes in genre, in which folk songs alternate with punk songs on a practically one-for-one basis. The end result, while aptly disturbing and demented, still feels like an experiment gone awry. If Pygmy Rush had stuck to either folk or punk, or had tried to mix the two genres within songs, rather than just among them, the album could have enjoyed a much-needed cohesiveness. Unreconciled as they are in Bitter River, however, folk and punk only tear each other down. The album has its moments, most notably with “Hurt Everything” and with its angrier, identically titled reprise. “The Boys of Swift Creek Reservoir,” another eerie song, prompted some research on my part; I’ve gathered it tells the pitch-dark tale of two thirteen-year-old boys who drowned in 2006 when their canoe capsized over Swift Creek Reservoir in Chesterfield County, Virginia. All three of the aforementioned songs draw heavily on a dark variety of folk, using wistful arrangements of clean, simple chords to produce something haunting, heartfelt, and beautiful. The album’s longest track, a 25-minute instrumental called “September Song,” is likewise enjoyable; its ambient soundscapes manage to provide a much more fitting component to the album than do the screamed, feedback-ridden punk tracks, whose hooks feel dry and formulaic. Overall, it seems Pygmy Rush do their best work while singing softly and playing modestly. So while a whole fourth of Bitter River feels disparate, formative, and overwrought, the other three fourths are a marvel of atmosphere. Final rating: 5/7 (Good).