CD REVIEW: VIOLENT FEMMES – We Can Do Anything

Shane | 9 May 2016 | Reply

CD REVIEW: VIOLENT FEMMES – We Can Do Anything
Universal Music Australia
4 March, 2016
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

52 Gordon Gano may now be, but he is still perfectly in touch with his young adult angst if the first Violent Femmes album in fifteen years is any indication, though some reports have it that Gano finds himself unable to write new material, and these songs were discovered on old demo tapes.

Either way, title track We Can Do Anything could have been lifted straight from a children’s album, such are the wide-eyed innocence, Wiggles-like feel, positive message and wildly imaginative flights-of-fancy lyrics.

Issues, Big Car and Untrue Love are edgier fare, more reminiscent of their old form, and despite the presence of a new drummer (John Sparrow) the signature Femmes sound is intact. Gano’s whiney, pleading vocals and acoustic guitars and Brian Ritchie’s unique acoustic bass are instantly recognisable anywhere, and sound sympatico enough that perhaps the legal and moral issues which broke the band up in 2009 have been resolved.

Gano and Ritchie aren’t kids any more, of course: none of us are. They’re equally adept at tackling more grown-up issues on What You Really Mean and Foothills, and with closing track I’m Not Done – whether singing about the band, a relationship, life in general (or all three) – Gano makes it clear that he has plenty more to offer up his sleeve.

If we’re really lucky that might mean it won’t be another fifteen years before Violent Femmes are back with another record of new(ish) material.