I\u2019m sorry Todd Lewis has been hurt.\u00a0 Really, I am.\u00a0 The Toadies\u2019 frontman seems like a swell guy.\u00a0 Listening to Rubberneck<\/i>, though, I\u2019m torn between giving him a pat on the back and, well, sort of hoping the abuse continues.\u00a0 The Toadies\u2019 debut is a largely-unheralded triumph of \u201890s alt-rock.\u00a0 It remains to this day as pointy-fanged and exhilarating as it was during the first Clinton administration.\u00a0 And the thing which has kept this disc ferocious and fresh for nearly two decades is\u2026sodium benzoate?\u00a0 Not quite.\u00a0 It\u2019s Lewis\u2019s righteous fury.\u00a0 Grunge rockers tended to emote implosively.\u00a0 The Toadies, however, are emphatically explosive.\u00a0 Syringes and self-loathing are nowhere to be found.\u00a0 There is rage.\u00a0 There is only rage.\u00a0 Eleven tracks of it, hot as thermite and twice as nasty.\u00a0 Todd\u2019s torments, while unfortunate, were also fundamental to the creation of a minor masterpiece.\u00a0 If it\u2019s okay to admit that the Stones were better back in the days of utter degeneracy, is it so wrong to hope that Lewis remains forever unhinged?<\/p>\n
There are plenty of mental patients imbued with high-voltage lunatic intensity.\u00a0 What separates those on Depakote from those on world tour (besides, uh, musical skill) is self-assuredness.\u00a0 From track one, it\u2019s apparent that Rubberneck<\/i> has confidence to burn.\u00a0 The instrumental \u201cMexican Hairless\u201d is a tiny hand grenade, its skittery, bassy undulations ratcheting the tension higher by the second.\u00a0 It catalyzes the far larger pyrotechnics of \u201cMister Love,\u201d a series of razor-edged guitar notes slashing through a furiously churning backbeat.\u00a0 And whether Lewis is yowling like he\u2019s on fire or mumbling like he was just strapped into a straightjacket, the tension is unabating.<\/p>\n
The demented, slow-simmering meltdown is an underappreciated art.\u00a0 And it\u2019s one at which Rubberneck<\/i> excels.\u00a0 The album\u2019s wildly-popular single, \u201cPossum Kingdom,\u201d is a prime example.\u00a0 It starts at a slow, swampy march, then Lisa Umbarger\u2019s tight, hypnotic basswork is joined by droning guitars and deliciously sinister lyrics (\u201cI\u2019m not gonna lie \/ I\u2019ll not be a gentleman \/ Behind the boathouse \/ I\u2019ll show you my dark secret\u201d).\u00a0 It\u2019s a leisurely smolder that builds to a spectacular conflagration.\u00a0 It takes surprising effort NOT to crank it to 11 and scream along (\u201cDoooooo you want to die?\u00a0 Doooooo you want to die?\u201d).\u00a0\u201cBackslider\u201d follows the same formula.\u00a0 While it\u2019s slightly more subdued, its tale of tent-revival terror still gets under your skin.\u00a0 Were there an award for \u201cBest Four-Minute Slice of Steadily-Escalating Insanity,\u201d however, it would surely go to \u201cTyler,\u201d\u00a0which begins with a single wavering guitar note, a bit like an ambulance siren.\u00a0 It\u2019s a distant presence behind Lewis\u2019 hushed delivery and the song\u2019\u2019 slow shuffle.\u00a0 As the song grows faster and more intense, so does the siren.\u00a0 By the time this lurid little rape fantasy comes to an end, it seems like it\u2019s directly outside your door, a droning harbinger of everything you fear.<\/p>\n
Rubberneck<\/i> offers a number of flat-out rockers, too.\u00a0 What better respite from \u201cTyler\u201d\u2019s sweaty anxiety than \u201cHappyface\u201d?\u00a0 It chugs to life and, like a possessed piece of machinery, shreds everything in its path.\u00a0 Lewis\u2019 delivery is desperate, whiny and yet somehow completely authoritative.\u00a0 \u201cQuitter\u201d is the closest the album comes to a \u201cnormal\u201d song (boy meets girl, girl shreds boy\u2019s heart on a box grater).\u00a0 However, the screeching, hyperactive guitars and manic delivery make it a Toadies tune through and through.<\/p>\n
While the album is free of total clunkers, Rubberneck<\/i>\u2019s lulls aren\u2019t its strong points.\u00a0 \u201cI Come From the Water\u201d is a revved-up little homage to Darwin; it\u2019s also uncharacteristically slight.\u00a0 And despite a towering, howling finish, \u201cI Burn\u201d is a little too drowsy and repetitive to really grab you.\u00a0 This disc isn\u2019t all killer, no filler, but for a debut album, it comes damned close.\u00a0 The majority of tracks are strong — and so\u2019s the demented confidence with which the Toadies rip through \u2018em.\u00a0 Rubberneck<\/i> is enlivened by a finely-focused lunacy.\u00a0 Lewis never tames his rage — but for eleven tracks, he manages to hop on its back and ride the hell out of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":29862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8387],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41478","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-toadies","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41478"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}