Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle
- Written by Pete Harris
Some people go through life playing it safe. They order the same meal from their local Chinese take away every time, they go on holiday to the same place every year and they only ever wear plain black t-shirts cos black goes with everything doesn’t it? These people buy albums from certain bands because they have expectations that these bands aren’t going to deviate from their previous releases. You can probably see where I’m going here and although this analogy might be a little harsh on Blonde Redhead and their fans (of which I am one) you can always tell a Blonde Redhead song after the first 10 seconds and as an extension of this, you always know what you’re going to get from a new Blonde Redhead album.
Sadly however, it’s inevitable that when you rest on your musical laurels, the law of diminishing returns will kick in and this is where we are with Penny Sparkle, Blonde Redhead’s 8th studio album. If this is your introduction to BR, Penny Sparkle may just be interesting enough to prompt further back catalogue purchases but long term fans will be less impressed. Where previous albums 23 and Misery is a Butterfly sonically soared, Penny Sparkle hides in the corner like an introverted toddler.
The album starts well enough with the sultry and restrained ‘Here Sometimes’ followed by the sparkling ‘Not Getting There’ though even these tracks, which are two of the best on offer here feel less magical and alive than the better tracks on the aforementioned albums. It’s as though Blonde Redhead have been so affected by the world’s economic instability that they’ve let an air of general pessimism creep into their music. How else can the snore fests that are ‘Will There be Stars’ and ‘My Plants Are Dead’ be explained? Both tracks are dull plods to snoozeville and in all honesty, very little from this point onwards is likely to wake you again. ‘Everything is Wrong’ may at least stir you with its promising opening but the track’s potential is squandered through aimless repetition.
Musically, Blonde Redhead have always kept things relatively sparse in the past. They deliver melody via the vocals whilst the backing music has always been simple and unobtrusive; however, there has always been a variety in delivery up til now. 23 and Misery is a Butterfly had a real band feel which was augmented with subtle electronica, on Penny Sparkle virtually all the music is delivered via synths and drum machines. This lack of variety deadens songs and creates an incredibly flat feel to the album.
Penny Sparkle feels like a blemish on an, up till now, extremely consistent back catalogue. The sad fact is that in the future, when I get the hankering to listen to some Blonde Redhead, Penny Sparkle will be bottom of the selection pile.