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Album Details

• Artist: Frog Eyes
• Album: The Golden River
• Label: Global Symphonic
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: jparker on 2003-08-25

You won't be able to sneak this onto the stereo amidst mixed company. The Golden River is, no matter what you think of it, an attention-grabbing album. It's art, man, not decoration. The first thing you'll notice is the vocals: moments of glam like Ziggy-era Bowie, the heart-on-sleeve ingenuousness of the Rheostatics, the weird grandiosity of Neutral Milk Hotel, and falsetto whoops that sound like nobody I've ever heard, but remind me of that here-doggy tongue-whistle that Tom Waits does. Vibrato, stutter, growl - singer-songwriter Carey Mercer will not be denied any device to convey his cryptic lyrics, which you won't be singing along with until you hear them 43 times. But maybe that's good: it worked for Neutral Milk Hotel. If you can sing along to "The King of Carrot Flowers," you might have the prerequisite skill for Frog Eyes' "Masticated Outboard Motors." Check these radio-friendly lyrics: "For high-tide bakers who bake fancy cakes for magistrative sensitives and anyone who is for the disconnective gestures of the front-line blue-blood pedlars; sign off, their mothers are boars: Hold the lines the ferries are sinking. Set upon. Wait, your face. I fought the radar." The last bit amidst a shitstorm of cymbals. And yet, after three times I'm tapping my toes. This is art rock in the best sense (Mercer even painted the cover) - begging repeated listenings to get your head around it, let alone decipher it. The music is built on rock guitars and drums, but it's also bigger, with swelling strings, chords from an upright piano, glockenspiel, and deep fuzzy rumblings ("Orbis Magnus"). "Time Destroys its Plan At The Reactionary Table" has a weird, New Orleans funeral march vibe. Indie stalwart Carolyn Mark adds her country/gospel-tinged backing to "A Latex Ice Age." This is an artistic vision supported by solid, creative musicians (including Mercer's wife, Melanie Campbell on drums). Was it painstakingly conceived, or is it a soundtrack to Mercer's (druggy?) stream-of-consciousness poetics? Either way, "The Golden River" is a welcome challenge.

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