The Paper Chase - Some Day This Could All Be Yours (Southern) 4/5
4/5
By: Jim Carroll
The Paper Chase's John Congleton has always struck me as something of a Jekyll and Hyde figure. By day, he's the good doctor - the music industry's presentable production illuminato responsible for recording many of the great and good from the worlds of mainstream indie and pop. Oh yeah, and Celine Dion too.
But there is a dark side to Mr. Congleton. A misanthropic side that refuses to be sated by recording R. Kelly, Modest Mouse or The Polyphonic Spree. A caustic, malevolent side that only appears by night. And this is when Mr. Congleton the ringleader emerges with his acolytes to deliver his unholy, brand of dissonant, jazz inflicted punk.
And so we have The Paper Chase's fifth full length, and it is a concept album. It's the first half of an intended two-parter. Given their penchant for the macabre it is perhaps not all that surprising that the album is a collection of dystopian tales of destruction. Each song depicts the obliteration of the world through a different natural disaster. Comets, floods, epidemics - they are all here as Congleton paints a nightmarish vision of a world of scurrying, panic stricken people terrified by cataclysmic even upon cataclysmic event.
As with previous Paper Chase's records, to an extent you know what you are in for. Firstly, given Congleton's undoubted knob twiddling expertise you know it's going to sound great. And it does. Secondly, you know it's going to be scary as hell. And it is. Scarier than discovering that Freddy Krueger is your new masseur. As Congleton caterwauls on 'This Is a Rape' (a song about a tsunami in case you were wondering), The Paper Chase 'want to help you, but first we want to hear how loud you scream'. Congleton's vocals still make him sound like Isaac Brock's deranged evil twin - bristling with ill disguised menace and impendence. Dissonant keys and hypnotic repetitive guitar riffs still abound; like listening to Wolf Parade through a creepy carnival fun house mirror.
What is more surprising perhaps then is that compared to their previous albums there is more focus on songs. The recurring musical motifs and segways that used to punctuate the tracks have been dispenses with. 'The Common Cold' is almost perilously close to being a three minute pop song.
The Paper Chase won't be to everyone's taste. At scary films there are always those who storm out. Or there are those who sit there petrified; with hands perennially placed firmly over eyelids scrunched tightly shut. But on the other hand there are always a few masochists. Those who can not help themselves and peek through the hints of daylight that appears through the gaps of their trembling fingers. And for those hardy souls who are not scared of being scared they will find something to love with Some Day This Could All Be Yours.
Artists in this article: The Paper Chase
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