Joan of Arc - Flowers (Polyvinyl)
4/5
By: Stephen Maughan
Few bands are either hated or adored as much as Joan of Arc, and you still never know when you play a new JofA album whether it's going to blow you away or send you to sleep. But 14 years since the demise of the influential Chicago post-punk band Cap'n'jazz, Tim Kinsella continues to explore uncharted musical territory with his constantly evolving Joan of Arc on this, their 12th release.
The style of their records, like the best art, can at times be difficult to immediately understand, least alone enjoy listening to. Flowers doesn't have that problem, with a crisp and flowing abstract sound, haunting math-rock instrumentals, and a good collection of clever abstract lyrics that wouldn't be out of place scribbled on a poet's night table - "Suffering to explain yourselves in another language volunteering for nightmares, who put the quotes around your entire life?" he wonders in the brilliant 'Life Sentence', while in the brooding 'Explain Yourselves #2' he finishes off a whirlpool musical adventure with the simple line, "Just snuggle up next to your name to keep warm".
Let's face it, the lyrics of Tim Kinsella could be worthy of a post graduate literature course with excited academics swooping down on each word, analysing and arguing over it. Indeed, the over intellectual tag Joan of Arc have built up over the years can be hard to shake off with charges of pretentiousness and arrogance. Let's face it, if you are looking for an easy feel good album, this isn't it.
Yet the appeal this band has goes far beyond a clever front singer, and some abstract soundscapes. For Joan of Arc are virtually impossible to pin down musically, and the fact that no other band sounds like them is as a credit both to their skill and ability to come up with a fresh and challenging release every year or so. If the last album, Boo Human, written while Kinsella was going through a divorce, dwelled heavily on relationships gone wrong and the overwhelming loneliness and obscurity of life, Flowers is blessed with unexpected colours and new beginnings emerging from the dirt ,with it's bluesy 70's feel, albeit in a post rock organic way.
For a band forever caught in the past, heading down a new direction can only be a good idea, for I've lost count of the number of reviewers talking about how things have gone downhill since Cap'n'Jazz, and it is doubtful whether any future Joan of Arc release will live up to the outstanding Live in Chicago, released ten years ago, which, along with Cap'n'Jazz, remains a perfect example of experimental rock music. Still, Flowers is one of their better attempts at matching these masterpieces, and finds them emerging fresh and awake, ready to take on their critics.
Artists in this article: Joan of Arc
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