CD REVIEW: THE VIOLENT FEMMES – Happy New Year EP

CD REVIEW: THE VIOLENT FEMMES – Happy New Year EP
Independant
5 June, 2015
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
7 ½ /10

Violent Femmes cut straight to the heart of what made them so great on their first recordings in fifteen years.

Happy New Year is full of Gordon Gano’s quirkily skewed world view, as he sings “I’ll have a Happy New Year next year,” in that pained, almost whiney voice. Interestingly this EP was recorded on New Year’s Eve just gone after a concert at the Sydney Opera House, in Hobart, Tasmania, where bassist Brian Ritchie recently relocated to.

A long way past their teen years, the Femmes still have plenty of the angst which made anthems to awkwardness like Blister In The Sun, Kiss Off and Add It Up so armoured by so many, and this EP shows that repression and seething confusion at the world is still there in spades.

Love Love love Love Love and Good For/At Nothing radiate Gano’s awkward insecurities, whilst Fast Horses finishes the four-track set, sounding more like Gano solo, coming across like a twisted Bob Dylan, but with a charm of its own.

Damn it’s good to have them back.

Category: CD Reviews