Album Flashback #18: Shivaree - I oughta give you a shot in the head for making me live in this dump
It all started after an episode of
Later… with Jools Holland way back in 2000.
#srcz Editor tells us how the discovery of an album in a Tokyo record
store informed a lifetime of listening.
“I oughta give you a shot in the head
for making me live in a dump like this…”
No, I’m not threatening you - I’m quoting.
Of what I shall now reveal: Shivaree.
Know ‘em? Well, you damn well should do! Shivaree were a trio of musicians who have released
four albums of brilliantly effective, weird and bizarre alternative rock.
Singer Ambrosia Parsley has a unique voice and turn of phrase that could make
you shiver from fear of about to be Axe murdered or smile from ecstasy. This
album is the band’s first album and is particularly worthy of being written
about as not nearly enough people knew about them. (Parsley released her first
solo disc Weeping Cherry in 2013 following the bands dissolution in 2007.)
It all started when I watched Jools Holland about ten years ago and saw Shivaree perform two tracks from this album. The tracks
in question were Daring Lousy Guy and Goodnight
Moon, famous for its appearance on Quentin Tarentino’s
Kill Bill. I loved it instantly, but couldn’t
find the disc anywhere. Fast forward eighteen months and I’m in Tokyo. I’m in Nakano and mooching around the shopping mall killing
time before work.
Upstairs in this mall is a dirty looking
record shop that outwardly, at least, seems like the kind of place Ayumi Hamasaki and Oasis records go when they die.
The smell of dust, cobwebs and alcohol was evident. There were plenty of
customers present though. Impressed, I started rooting through the record bin at the entrance. After much
rummaging and eye averting from eighties junk and throw away J-Pop I saw the
said album by Shivaree in front of me. The name clicked. I
remembered the performance I’d seen on tv many moons ago and bought it
instantly.
The album presents a dark, industrialised view of life
that incorporates poetry, technology and irony in combination with much more.
This album is not perfect. It has to be said that it could have been longer and
thus more fully formed. But, such all round talent is never perfectly formed.
Perfection is the enemy here. The success of this album is sounding highly
produced yet rough at the same time.
Tracks such as Goodnight Moon and
Arlington Girl present a world of monochrome quality that is scary as hell and
sad as anything. However the emotion is not bitter, merely weirdly beguiling.
Listening to the songs on the album one can visually picture what is going on.
It is a credit to the writing ability of Parsley and co that such evocative
work is possible. The world we see in most of the songs is a bleak picture of
the songs characters living out their misery yet not being sad. The effect couldn’t be completed without the brilliant sound sculptures that form the backing
music.
The piano on Arlington Girl perfectly
paints the picture of blackness presented in the lyrics, with the grainy
quality improving the sound rather than ruining the effect. The
rough edges are present here and also on the sardonic album close Arrivederci. Lyrically, Ambrosia
Parsley is gifted to say the least. Classic examples
include “Well I think I hate you / Isn’t this fun? / You’re gonna shoot/ And I
baby loaded the gun” from Bossa Nova, the whole of Goodnight Moon and
much of the rest actually. Rarely does one find such a dark and atmospheric
lyric base sung so frighteningly sweetly.
There still really is a lot to recommend this album. Take a few listens and
you’ll be hooked. This music is dark, deliberate and non-commercial in its approach. The only really
instant track is Goodnight Moon, which is not to put it down merely complement
it.
There is really not that much more to
say except seek it out.
Words by Sebastian Gahan.
#srcz
