Warpaint The Fool [Deluxe Edition] (Rough Trade)
4/5
By: Christiana Spens
"We're going for an overall underwater mood," Warpaint declared upon the initial release of this, their debut album, last year, and as Autumn settles in on 2011, they pull us further down with a deluxe reissue – adding a few bonus remixes and the Exquisite Corpse EP across two compact discs.
Sirens singing morbid lullabies to ever-entranced sailors, romantic lost boys and misled pirates, the LA four-piece spare no such curious souls in their seduction. It seems impossible to escape their idyllic-seeming underworld, their soft abyss.
It’s wonderful to see that pre-album EP getting a bit more exposure, as ‘Billie Holiday’ in particular - some sort of black-veiled lament to a lost lover - is unforgettable. With echoes of ‘Polly’ by Nirvana, there’s an underlying insinuation of violence here too - of about-to-break illusions, of shattering dreams, of glass breaking silence and death crashing lust. Back on the album proper, ‘Baby’ also lingers in this atmosphere, seeming to softly lay to rest a deluded lover, seeming to smother her as she sings.
"Now I've got you into the Undertow," Kokal and Wayman sing later, faintly bragging of their emotional conquest of an entranced audience. Their voices are lethal and elusive - at times pin-sharp and vengeful, at other times shaky and fainting. They sound like Narcissus and Echo in a sweet duet, a watery requiem for every fatal love affair, (and every melodramatic high school break up). We witness romance dying, hope drowning, nymphs wreaking vengeance, and pirates crying.
Warpaint have created an incredibly romantic, seductive set of songs, and a heartbreaker of an album. I doubt many who listen to these girls will ever leave their underworld of gleaming love, and the morbid sublime.
Artists in this article: Warpaint
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment