Blonde Redhead's Penny Sparkles on New Album
Blonde Redhead's newest album Penny Sparkle completes a trilogy of groundbreaking rock/electronica albums on the 4AD label.
When the downtown New York City band, Blonde Redhead began gigging 17 years ago their high volume dissonant guitars, alternate tunings, and stilted lyric content drew inevitable comparisons to Sonic Youth. Sonic Youth's drummer, Steve Shelley even produced Blonde Redhead's debut album & released it on his own label. Between 1997 & 2000 Blonde Redhead released four well received albums on the Touch & Go label.
Blonde Redhead vocalist & guitarist Kuzu Makino
In 2004 Blonde Redhead resurfaced on a new label, 4 AD & during their four year hiatus from the recording studio, the band had retooled it's sound so radically that the Sonic Youth comparisons were gone forever. Blonde Redhead's new sound moved away from their dissonant punk noise rock origins into the territory of experimental rock/electronica. The smoother edges in Blonde Redhead's sound weren't a sellout to the mainstream. They were still to the left of the Cocteau Twins, perhaps the most adventurous electronic band of the first generation. The Blonde Redhead on 4AD sounds like a completely different band from the Blonde Redhead on Touch & Go.
This week the much anticipated Penny Sparkle was release & it completes a trilogy of near perfect albums by Blonde Redhead for the 4 AD label. Those albums are
Misery Is A Butterfly (2004),
23 (2007) and
Penny Sparkle (2010). The biggest challenge for Blonde Redhead was to top the sublime perfection of
23, their last album which is their career masterwork & one of the great albums of 4th Generation rock.
Penny Sparkle is neither better or worse than
23, it's just different. This album is sparser & more minimalist than any other Blonde Redhead recording & like
23 it will take a few months of repeated listening session for the haunting beauty of
Penny Sparkle to completely settle in. It's an artistic triumph for a band that deserves to be heard by more people. Blonde Redhead is a great band because it's members aren't afraid of change & have made a musical career out of refusing to do the obvious.
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The opening cut, Here Sometimes sets the tone for the album:
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The second cut, Not Getting There is a hypnotic & moody song well suited to Kazu Makino's languorous vocal.
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My favorite cut is the mysterious Oslo which features a prominent synthesizer & a ska riddim.
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