Though less “young” than their debut, that album’s darkness lingers, but here has a more removed, observational quality, with many songs sung in character or in the third person, along with a tendency for anthropomorphic allegory. It has a bit less to do with screaming for death to come than with a growing resignation to being the other, a recognition of inescapable alienation and its relation to childhood trauma. —all with a heaping side of absurdity and a sense of wonder at the gradually unfolding endtimes.
That said, many of the tracks wouldn’t be out of place on the debut, and some feature exotic tunings. Bits of roots music come into play as well—gospel, blues, and country figure to some extent in a third of the songs, sometimes in convoluted, Beefheart-esque ways, and at other times toying with genre archetypes as a cat does a mouse.
TRACK LISTING
1. Too Cool
2. Abysmal Child
3. Spirit Death
4. Dogsleds In Heaven
5. Rattlesnake's Wedding
6. Escape From The Zoo
7. Lady Luck Is Dead
8. Valentine's Day
9. Big Black Locomotive
10. Party In The Ground
11. Totem Fields
12. Gospel Motel
13. Count Basie's Ghost