Doolittle

This album is kinda odd for me, specifically from how it's structured, both sonically and thematically. It almost feels like it's two different EPs slapped together.

The first half feels like this slightly absurdist EP about life and morality, especially after looking up the inspiration for debaser after trying to figure out what the fuck "un chien andalusia" was.

Debaser is a really bright track that starts off with this great bass riff and just has this energy that remains super cheerful despite the song literally being about an arthouse movie where a woman gets her pupils sliced??? It's a great opening track about wanting to make subversive and provocative art to this first half.

Tame feels almost animalistic in its structure, with this very subdued verse that explodes into a ferocious chorus. The heavy breathing after the second chorus really adds to the feeling. Same kind of animalistic horny as songs like Closer by Nine Inch Nails lyrically to match the sound.

Wave of Mutilation is a really alt-rocky song about death and wanting to drift out to sea. It's similarly juxtaposed tonally with very bright drums and guitar riffs as Debaser. I Bleed carries a similar vibe, more just pointing out how fragile people are and talking about death.

Here Comes Your Man feels so out of place here. Instrumentally it's hard shifted into The Beatles' early works. It's a good song on it's own but god damn it's a bizzare place for this song on this album. It's a weird case because it doesn't ruin the album for being a bad song but it clashes so oddly with everything around it tgat it kinda hits wronh in context of the album.

Dead comes immediately after that and has a much darker tone sonically. It feels like a more absurdist and off-kilter, with each verse save the one about a pregnancy ending with just the bluntest "dead." It's funny IDK I enjoy it.

Monkey Gone To Heaven is this really trippy song about the environment, referencing dumping of sewage waste into the ocean, the holes in the ozone layer (something that we're so far removed from now I literally had to look up the song to remember since we somehow didn't destroy the Earth once) and mass animal death. It's really melancholic I love it. Kinda leans into that fragility of life on a less human and more ecological scale.

From here it goes into the second EP, the one that is marked by a little less cohesion and a bit more genre experimentation.

The first track of this is Mr. Grieves, which starts and ends with a very slow, reggae groove before transitioning into a more straightforward rock cut. It does reference the environmentalism again though Neptune's daughter (I assume a mermaid) who is now also tragically dead after Neptune drowned in all of New York's sewage. I wish there was a bit more reggae on here.

Crackity Jones is then this really silly, speedy punk song about a weird guy named Hugo. Kinda feels like a Chats song in a good way.

La La Love You is a really straightforward about the singer trying to get a woman's attention, with wolf whistles thrown in between statements of love for this woman. It's aight, it's tasteful.

No. 13 Baby doesn't really do much for me, it's another track about being attracted to a passing woman, but this time the singer's real type is revealed, big tiddy goth gfs.

There Goes My Gun feels very much like almost proto green day with the operatic drumming and soaring guitars. It's also a bit like... piratey? IDK it's super fun and probavly my fav track of this second half.

Hey brings back some of the biblical allusions from Monkey Gone To Heaven, with more of a soft rock vibe. TBH I think it's a good song but it's just not as sticky as other stuff here. That's kind of a theme with this half of the album.

Silver is the biggest miss of the album. It's this weird corny cowboy Western. Kim Dean's solo demo feels so much more interesting than the Pixies version IDK, I feel like the corniness loses some of what it was going for.

Gouge Away is a great closer, bringing back that rough, grungier energy of the opening half, with almost more fire after a much softer second half, almost mirroring the groteseque imagery of the opener with reference to gouging and spooning eyes, while weaving in the biblical imagery in the final verse in reference to a 3 day feast while chained to pillars.

Overall, I feel like this album has an amazing first half with a weird pacing interuption, and an okay second half that's just overshadowed by the first half. I wanted to enjoy this album more, and definitely think it's great, but it just didn't totally live up to itself on its second half.