NEW Violent Femmes - New Times (CD)

The Femmes kick this album off right, with "Don't Start Me on the Liquor". A catchy, up-tempo song with that same vintage Femmes sound that we all know and love from their self-titled debut. This track also showcases the remarkable bass playing abilities of Mr. Brian Ritchie. (Possibly one of the most under-rated bass players in rock music!) Unfortunately I was a bit let down after that song, because the album takes on a completely different direction. It's a new wave kind of vibe featuring synthesizers and some other obscure instruments. I wonder if the lead off track was an older song that they had never released, and then just decided to put it out then since they were doing another record. As a fan of the band I can respect that they were trying something new, but unfortunately it didn't work well on this record.

New Times is an entirely appropriate title for this most eclectic of albums from a most eclectic band. The Violent Femmes have changed quite visibly with the exit of Victor DeLorenzo and the entrance of Guy Hoffman on drums. I'll admit it took a few listens for this CD to really start appealing to me. There is a lot of experimental stuff going on here, with individual songs sometimes going off in about three distinct directions over the course of four or five minutes. The overall sound is markedly different in several places from what the Violent Femmes had done up to this point, with drums and deep bass beats often giving rise to a substantive, weighty atmosphere of surrealism and implicit melancholia. The guys have long played around with unique musical jam sessions of high strangeness, but they really indulge themselves on New Times. A number of instruments I haven't even heard of (e.g., noseflute, tranceaphone, theremin, baglama) figure large in the music. Several songs end with extended periods of cacophonous orgies of sound, but the most unusual of all selections is the song Machine. Here, Gano recites unusual lyrics about building a machine to take over the world while something akin to electronic synthesizers pushes the song along; much more than throwaway experimentation, Machine does offer a serious message roiling around in its deep undercurrents of frustration. Agamemnon is another unusual song, ending with Gano literally shouting in the background.

There really are some great songs included on this CD. Don't Start Me on the Liquor is a typically fun Violent Femmes opening number. New Times, Breakin' Up, and 4 Seasons have a modernized yet vintage Femmes sound to them. I'm Nothin' is spectacular, foregoing everything except Gano's voice and guitar in its presentation. When Everybody's Happy reminds me to some degree of Good Feelings from the band's first album; of course, there is a melancholy aspect to this "happy" song on Gano's part. The final three tracks are the best on the album, in my opinion. I especially love Mirror Mirror (I See a Damsel), which evokes a pretty tender message, at least the way I understand it, while really putting the band through the paces. There is both a folk music and polka feel to this one, and the energy and tempo of the song steadily increases as the track speeds its way along toward a frenetic release. Jesus of Rio seems to feature at least three entirely different styles of music and rhythm, making it a quite memorable way in which to conclude this unusual yet somehow compelling album.

This was the first album released after the retrospective compilation, Add It Up. It has that classic Femmes sound, acoustic-based songs with the simplest of instrumentation all tied together by Gordon Gano's timid teenage boy voice and laugh-a-minute lyrics. It lacks the youthful spark of earlier Femmes albums, but I think most fans would still be satisfied with it. "Breakin' Up", "4 Seasons", "Machine", and "I Saw You In The Crowd" are probably the best tracks on the album.

"Machine" is truly one of the most hilarious songs I've ever heard. It has really bad drum machine and synth sounds that are accented by Gordon's deadpan delivery (he actually just speaks rather than singing) of the following lyrics: "I got a machine and I took over the world in one weekend. I did it because I was looking for a project, and it was either take over the world or learn French. So I took over the world. And next weekend, I can learn French." The lyrics are repeated over and over and pretty soon there's a robot voice chiming in and saying them too. It just has to be heard to be believed. We always knew the Femmes had a great sense of humor, but this cracks me up more than anything.