Goon Moon - Licker’s Last Leg (Ipecac)
4/5
By: Charlie Potter
It's incredibly exciting every time you receive a CD from Ipecac. I pride myself on having over forty of their releases, but I'll admit that some of the more recent records from their stable have been a little questionable. It's trust that keeps me coming back to my favourite bands and my favourite labels, and giving them more time to win me over, yet I no longer get the feeling with Ipecac that whatever they release will be a good record as a rule.
But as for this album - is it a good one? Well, yeah, I had hoped it would be a little more off the wall, but 'Licker's Last Leg' is a really nicely odd little album. True, it's no 'Amenza al Mundo' (Fantomas' first), but basically people like me really have to just get over it - both of the folks who make up Goon Moon are working under some very unusual ideas, and that's to be applauded.
This album is the brain child, or more appropriately love child of Jeordie White and Chris Goss. I still have an enormous amount of respect for Twiggy Ramirez (I was indeed once a Manson follower), though I'm sure he would rather be known as Jeordie White these days. I love to think that this is what current Marilyn Manson lacks - it has to be said that it was when Twiggy left that Marilyn stopped being good pretty much altogether. As with every recording he's been on, what he provides here is edge.
The whole sound of the album is incredibly close to that of the Queens of the Stone Age, or more specifically their Desert Sessions project. That's not particularly surprising given that both musicians were part of Desert Sessions, and both projects have been produced by Chris Goss. But 'Licker's Last Leg' is a lot weirder. If you can appreciate silly lyrics sung seriously then its all here, along with a real beauty in the way that these songs can at times get you singing along emotionally even if the words you utter mean very little, if anything at all. Heck, sometimes it's good to just revel in something that means nothing. Why do you think people like football?
The subtlety of arrangements and familiarity of sound make the record a massive grower. I get a substantial amount of joy from this album - true, there are bits of it you may dislike, but overall it deserves to be a regarded as a classic, whether it will or not depending only on whether the right people find it in time. If these guys had stronger voices, or held this band as their main project, it'd be knocking people's socks off all over the place.
The pop elements on this album are hilariously studied and skilful, in the same way that Esquilax (you really should buy that ten inch) often are. Indeed, at times it sounds like something that could form the soundtrack to The O.C., but rather than having idiot kids whining you instead get this pair - a duo who are about as genuinely rock n' roll as they come.
Is casual a feeling, or is that just being relaxed? It seems to me that there's a very particular type of relaxed feeling that involves wearing loose clothes, and having a few beers to chill out rather than to get plastered. The sound of this feeling is this great, fun little album - it's at times pretty rockin', but you still feel like they could take it or leave it. How very refreshing.
Stream three tracks from 'Licker's Last Leg' HERE.
Artists in this article: Goon Moon
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment