It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I've been thoroughly obsessed with Rasputina's album Oh Perilous World! lately. There's just something incredibly compelling about using the cello as a rock instrument, blending metal and classical sensibilities together into a shiny pile of velvet and brocade, and overlaying the whole thing with lyrics that sound like recitations of encyclopedia entries.
Rasputina's lead vocalist and cellist, Melora Creager, began playing the cello at age nine, and is also apparently a history buff, and both of these things come through in spades on Oh Perilous World!. The album's themes are a weird mixture of quirky history lesson and current events (of the generally destructive sort).
While there's plenty to chew on from an antiwar and social commentary standpoint, there's also a layer of pure fun to this album -- an odd juxtaposition, perhaps, but Rasputina manages to make it work. It's the sort of album that makes me alternate between delightedly bouncing up and down in my chair and running to Wikipedia to look up references to Pitcairn Island, Tangata manu, and the apparent "Year Without a Summer" (1816).
The imagery (while decidedly dark) in all the album's songs is refreshingly concrete, which is something I've always appreciated lyrically -- I mean, you can't go wrong (per my taste at least) with lines like:
Grain couldn't ripen under these conditions,
It was brought indoors in urns and pots.
It'd go from ninety-five degrees to freezing within hours,
A brutal struggle for the people and the starving livestock.
and,
Jump the cliff into the ocean
You grab an egg
You swim back
Holding it aloft
You hold it high above the shark infested waters now
Oh my love
I can't help it, I like songs about objects. I like songs that describe physical things, that list dates and temperature parameters and other strings of information. Heck, I'd probably listen to an instruction manual for a DVD player if someone could set it to music -- that's just the sort of person I am, I guess. :P
Anyway, though, while album reviews aren't something I plan to do on Existence is Wonderful on a regular basis, this particular album raised my squee levels to the point where I felt it necessary to mention it here.
2 comments:
I haven't gotten that excited about Oh, Perilous World yet. I adore their work (and I own a folio of the sheet music for their first album, which I anxiously await being competent enough on the cello to play!) Seeing them live makes me squee a little bit too much. I'm still too busy obsessing over "Saline, the Salt Lake Queen" to get sucked into oh, Perilous World.
I hope it hits me like it's hit you!
Robin: The only other album of theirs I've heard thus far (in addition to "Oh, Perilous World!") is "The Lost and Found", which consists entirely of covers. I'm definitely interested in accessing the rest of the catalogue, though!
Post a Comment