OF NATURAL HISTORY

Quirky avant garde/RIO at its cheekiest--as well as at its most "out of the box" creative. As many reviewers say, this is one of the albums that one can uphold as "the most unusual music you've ever heard" in the truest, most accurate sense--and yet these are very skilled, talented musicians and composers! But beware: if you're not in the right mood this may not agree with you!

1. "A Hymn to the Morning Star" (5:40) Nils Frydahl singing in a theatric baritone tongue-in-cheek, exaggerated "Christian" religious music. Most excellent satire. (9/10)

2. "The Donkey-Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens the Discussion" (6:01) agggressive and abrasive but somehow amazing and awesome! (8.75/10)

3. "Phthisis" (3:44) Carla Kihlstedt's amazingly clear BJÖRK-like voice grounds this steroidal XTC-like song amazingly. A blend of Knifeworld and Major Parkinson both on crystal meth. (9/10)

4. "Bring Back the Apocalypse" (4:10) protest crowd noises tie this song to the one before. Then industrial march noises and robotic movement noises fill the sound field from percussive instruments and keyboards. Male chorus "la-la-la" chants join in with some horn-like instruments before a throbbing bass and glockenspiel drive them all away while the crazed "bring it back" chant joins in (8.75/10)

5. "FC: The Freedom Club" (10:48) interesting dirge-like music that turns rooftop BEATLES-like before gaining the momentum of a heavy Motorpsycho section. All the while singer Nils Frykdahl and Ryan Reynolds stand-in Dan Rathburn trade vocal opportunities, one in emphatic growls, the other in spoken factual statements. The music goes full metal men-in-white-coats in the end of the fourth minute. Violin and other instruments join in from time to time, giving Nils and Dan breaks, until 7:00 when things quiet down and the upper register vocals become almost heavenly. There are actually several vocal tracks woven into this section with the heavenly hosts slowly receding as the lower register of reason moves slowly to the fore. Then we are led out of Eden by birds, insects, frogs, and, at the very end, a passing car. Very, very cool, theatric song. (19/20)

6. "Gunday's Child" (6:56) for 1:45 Carla Kihlstedt's creepy sustained words are supported by bass and percussive noises, but then very angular Crimsonian sound palette of industrial instruments emerges and whisks Carla away in a kind of wave of malevolent mystery. Then the music goes childhood nightmare while upper register choir sings about childhood. At 4:25 Carla and the Wave are off again into an abrasive XTC Industrial Donkey kick. Another odd but absolutely brilliant song. Wow! (14.25/15)

7. "The 17-Year Cicada" (3:41) Of course Sleepytime Gorilla Museum needed their own version of Genesis' "The Waiting Room"! (8.25/10)

8. "The Creature" (6:00) weird ploddingness with almost-narrated singing about the arrival of the scariest Creature of all. (Man?) (8.5/10)

9. "What Shall We Do Without Us?" (2:38) an étude with percussion, strings, violin squeals, and Carla's breathy angel voice doubled up--at least until the 1:00 mark when rock-instrument-delivered machine gun bullets riddle the soundscape in an expression of release. Ends with more audio tapes of some homeless American dude rambling on. (4.25/5)

10. "Babydoctor" (13:59) minimal dissonant instruments play while man and woman join in, singing, over and over, "Thank you." In the third minute things progress to more forward movement and a far more aggressive vocal approach (especially for the now-forward male, the still-present female having now moved to the background). It's kind of a microcosmic look at specific glimpses of scenes from a modern human life. The final three minutes goes quiet--filled with chanting subway voices, nose flutes and an interview with a street-living man addict. Definitely the weirdest, most abrasive, and least engaging song on the album (due to its incessant dissonance and abrasive UZED-like industrial bangs). (25/30)

11. "Cockroach" (2:12) another comedic overly melodramatic song in which the lead singer rants in mock fear over the existence and habits of a creature that would rather live in the trash than on the lawn. (We assume he's talking about the cockroach but may, in fact, be talking about the species we call homo sapiens sapiens.) Funny. (4.25/5)

12. "untitled hidden track" (5:56) more bugs, birds, and amphibians open this one before the recorded voice of a swamp citizen enters, commenting on the noises and state of the swamp. As a matter of fact, all of the six minutes of this track are field recordings spliced together.

Total Time: 71:45

This band must have had so much fun creating and realizing this album! The process of trying to come up with the right sounds, sound fields, sound patterns, and segment durations for the theatric expression of their particular views on Natural History must have been arduous yet so much fun and so rewarding! Despite being one of the weirdest albums you'll ever hear, this is definitely music, definitely theatric, definitely fine art! It reminds me of some Broadway play--like a modern day variation on Stephen Schwartz' Godspell or Wicked.

B/four stars; a masterpiece of modern deconstructural cabaret theater but not an album for every day or every person. As John Davies and others before me have said, I think you'd be remiss if you never gave this album a listen. It's worth the experience ? at least once.