Wonderful!
Despite some very mixed reviews of their debut album, Brighton’s Vile Imbeciles have stuck by their principles of music making and thrust the follow-up, ‘Queenie Was A Blonde,’ upon a now sceptical public. Many will hate this, but equally (and hopefully more) will love it!
Perhaps best described as ‘mess-rock,’ this is forty minutes of memorable discordant but yet somehow also harmonious spasmodic guitar and beats. Many of the songs seem to have no real structure, at least not in the conventional sense anyway. Think how Captain Beefheart would have sounded had he been born two generations later, and given a Gameboy to play with.
Three exceptions are ‘Belief In No,’ which is a bluesy number with a deep cello sounding drone propping up the song, and ‘The Empty Vessel,’ which has a more jazzy feel. ‘That Nail Thing,’ also almost conforms to a regular song structure and is as close as these guys are likely to get to producing a rock song.
Otherwise, it’s like organised chaos all the way with synth bleeps lightening up deep, dark bass lines. Scuzzy guitar throughout gives a slight Jesus and Mary Chain (with ADHD) feel at times. Song titles such as ‘Puncture Me In Touch (Buster)’ ‘Isn’t Any Fun Too Much?’ and ‘Spit On My Happiness’ probably give as good an idea of what to expect on this album as trying to accurately describe the sounds. Love it or hate it, there is so much going on in these thirteen tracks that every listener will take something different from each song.
At times frantic, at times sinister. At all times unpredictable, at all times inventive. From start to finish, just brilliant!
//Colin Jackson