Carla Bozulich - Boy

Carla Bozulich
Boy
4 March 2014
Constellation

4.5 stars out of 5

 

“I’m gonna stop killing today, make better use of my hands.” Carla Bozulich means business on her latest LP, Boy. One of the great unsung songwriters of the last thirty years, Bozulich has been a founding member of such acts as the Geraldine Fibbers, Ethyl Meatplow, and most recently Evangelista. Boy is a powerful new entry in her already impressive discography, an album that reaches into some dark corners and pulls out some nasty monsters to analyze in Bozulich’s confessional lyrical mode.

Bozulich launches the first volley with “Ain’t No Grave,” a dizzy, inside-out jazz meets post-punk interpretation of the blues. The next shot is the Tom Waits multiplied by Einstürzende Neubauten cacophony of “One Hard Man,” and it drives its shrapnel deep into our helpless flesh. Basically, after barely more than six minutes at this point, Bozulich has already blown away most other 2014 releases so far with these two tracks. “Drowned to the Light” is a haunting take on an Appalachian murder ballad. “Danceland” melds dub with jazz brushes and atmospheric electronic bleepings in telling an urban folk myth. After the almost menacing “ballad” that is “What Is It Baby?” the album closes with “Number X,” a chilling, mostly instrumental exercise that feels like an audio poem—the kind of poetry that is both warmly comforting and wildly aggressive at the same time.

This record is excitingly dark. It’s dark in a positive, powerful way. Part unhinged Americana, part jazzy no-wave, the music of Boy is as complex and inspiring as the artist who made it. Miss it at your own risk.

reviewed by Richard Krueger