Kristin Hersh has always used 50 Foot Wave as a third outlet for her angular, jagged, layered hard rock. The Throwing Muses name has weight and history, and her solo albums are just that, so the chance to record with a power trio but not have to have comparisons to the Muses\u2019 body of \u201980s and \u201990s work is sort of freeing for Hersh. Over the last 18 or so years, 50 Foot Wave has sporadically released EPs and one other album (that was itself a collection of songs already released, mostly). This isn\u2019t a prolific trio, but Hersh is a prolific songwriter dating back to 1986, so when something is released under the Wave name, it’s usually worth a listen.<\/p>\n
Black Pearl <\/i>is indeed interesting and occasionally mysterious, though the 32-minute album stops short of being compelling. Fans of \u201980s and \u201990s non-commercial alternative rock\u2014the jangly, jagged, noisy kind\u2014will feel right at home here, of course. There\u2019s little concession to pop music or accessibility and plenty of love for layered, distorted guitars on songs with jarring tempo shifts and Hersh\u2019s raspy growl.<\/p>\n
The best moment is the opening track \u201cStaring Into The Sun,\u201d a distillation of everything great about Hersh\u2019s songwriting, and the sort of layered noise rock that sounds like a modern update on My Bloody Valentine and the like. Unfortunately, the downshift into the awkward \u201cHog Child\u201d and the shifts of \u201cFly Down South\u201d don\u2019t quite measure up, and the title cut is basically a surf-rock instrumental, but slowed way down and stomped into the mud at Lollapalooza.<\/p>\n
\u201cBroken Sugar\u201d and \u201cBlush\u201d have some interesting ideas, though it takes a few listens to appreciate them, which is not unusual for anything Hersh has been a part of. \u201cDouble Barrel\u201d has a bit more melody and a circular guitar solo to boot, ending the album on an odd note as it just sort of stops, but warranting repeated listens just because it tries to be different.<\/p>\n
A few more songs would have helped to round this out, making it feel like a true album instead of a long EP, and certainly a couple more surefire tracks like \u201cStaring Into The Sun\u201d would have boosted the weaker tracks here. Black Pearl <\/i>is not without its draws, and will appeal to a certain group of fans, but it\u2019s not the statement it could have been and certainly was not worth such a long wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":34491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10733],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-46333","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-50-foot-wave","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46333","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46333"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}