Golden Oceans of Sound
"Loud" is the first word that comes to mind when trying to describe Golden Ocean, the raucous new album from Kristin Hersh-fronted trio 50 Foot Wave. There is plenty of frantic drumming by Rob Ahlers, and loud guitar playing by Hersh, held fast together by bassist Bernard Georges. All three members contribute vocals, though Hersh's voice is the focal point throughout.
You may be wondering what I, your source for gentle hippie- and hillbilly-related music of all kinds, see in an album like this. For me, the hook is the combination of Kristin Hersh's robust, scratchy voice and the brilliant lyrics. She swears a little more than you might expect from such an articulate songwriter, yes. Still, as far as I'm concerned, lyrics like, "These eggs look like eyeballs and I'm too bored to eat," ("El Dorado") more than make up for angrier couplets such as, "You know what? / Shut the fuck up!" ("Pneuma"). On "Bone China," she vamps on a line from South Pacific, wailing, "Gonna wash that man right out out of my head / And soap him into my eyes."
"Dog Days," my favorite song from Golden Ocean, has already appeared on 50 Foot Wave's debut self-titled EP. It is longer and louder here than it was on that EP, but its emotional resonance is the same. Over a haunting melody, Hersh belts out lyrics that tug at the heartstrings while remaining enigmatic. As my friend Julie pointed out to me some time ago, the line, "Don't touch me I don't know where you've been," could be anything from an implication of germphobia to an accusation of infidelity--perhaps both.
Hersh is already famous for founding indie-rock band Throwing Muses with her stepsister Tanya Donelly, in the 1980's, when both women were only teenagers. If you are intrigued by Golden Ocean and would like to hear more, here is a crash course what I consider some of the strongest entries in the Throwing Muses Family Tree catalog.
The band's first album is generally referred to as Throwing Muses, but the folks at throwingmusic.com insist that it actually had no title. This untitled album is not for the faint of heart. Hersh's raw emotion, her pain and frustration, are so undisguised as to make the album almost unlistenable--not because it isn't good. It is good. But most of us aren't used to this kind of relentless honesty on a rock and roll album. Hersh gives better-known songwriters like Pete Townshend and Leonard Cohen a run for their money when it comes to merciless treatment of unpleasant subject matter. Self-hatred? Check. Gay-bashing? Check. Total raving, hallucinatory insanity? Yep, Throwing Muses' untitled first album has all of these. Donelly's contribution, "Green," might be musically more pleasant than the rest of the album, but the lyrics describe an obsessive, all-consuming love affair that has left the narrator empty and helpless. "There's one boy, in one house, and one face, at all times, and green eyes," Donelly intones in an eerie, angelic quaver. It's a great album for helping unstable girls like myself get through high school, but if you're looking for something a little more accessible, I suggest Throwing Muses' Hunkpapa or University.
Hunkpapa was recorded while Donelly was still on board. It is often unjustly dismissed by indie purists because it contains Hersh's attempt at a hit single, "Dizzy," a nice and only slightly dysfunctional love story about a Native American girl and a very white man. "Dizzy" really isn't a bad song at all, though, and it's by no means the only treasure on Hunkpapa. Donelly's songs here are especially charming. She penned "Angel," an ambivalent and downright sexy ode to celibacy ("I want to stretch my skin around you / Let you stretch yourself / But I stop your hands / Each time"), and "Dragonhead," which is pretty, spooky and catchy all at once. Hersh also displays tremendous emotional range on Hunkpapa, sometimes waxing vulnerable and vengeful within the same song. On "Take," she croons, "If you don't think I'm pretty, I understand / Just don't think you won't die by a woman's hand." She opens "Fall Down" with an innocent spoken narration: "I picked up this lady in a store / She dropped her stuff and tripped on it, so I picked her up / I said, Everybody falls down." By the end of the song, though, she is wailing with self-destructive fury, "Fall down / Now / I hope you fall so fast and hard that you get me."
University was recorded after Donelly's departure. Hersh's voice is amazing here, used to bellow ominously at times and croon prettily at others. It produced a minor hit, "Bright Yellow Gun," featuring the nakedly honest lyrics, "I have nothing to offer but confusion / And the circus in my head / In the middle of the bed / In the middle of the night." University also contains the mysterious and mournful "Fever Few," whose sick narrator confesses to a caretaker, "You bring me water / You bring me dope / I don't like you, but you're my only hope." There's room on this album for happiness and light, too, though, on the idyllic "Crabtown," and "That's All You Wanted," which appears to be an unabashed love song ("We share this skin / We share this kiss").
After leaving Throwing Muses, Tanya Donelly went on to found Belly. People who would like a good cross-section of Belly's output would do well to pick up a copy of Sweet Ride: The Best of Belly. It contains the radio hits from Belly's two albums, and a lot of intriguing B-sides and previously unreleased material, such as Donelly's gentle, thoughtful cover of Gram Parson's "Hot Burrito #1," and original compositions like "Dream On Me," which prove that even when Donelly is in what she considers throwaway-song mode, she's still writing much better material than many of her peers. Belly's sound was, to my untrained ear, consistently more gentle than that of Throwing Muses, which may make them an easier starting point for pop fans.
Hersh and Donelly have both gone on to have noteworthy solo careers, which deserve to be written up individually elsewhere. For anyone interested in hearing what they've done as frontwomen of full bands, any of the above releases from 50 Foot Wave, Throwing Muses, or Belly should make for an evening of captivating listening.