| |
|
I was fairly disinclined to believe all Tibet's recent talk of how this is the album he's been wanting to make forever, this is the most fully realised he's ever made C93, etc etc, because it's the kind of thing everyone says when they're promoting new stuff. But I can well believe it.
It hits ALL the buttons. And with Current 93, there are a LOT of buttons to hit- usually he hits 'em one or two at a time (Soft Black Stars, for example, or Sleep Has His House, being albums with a single defining sound. Brilliant though they both are, they both stick to their own sound pretty much exclusively) but with Black Ships, he's hitting more buttons than an octopus with ADD. It's mostly the latter-day folky C93 sound, but it goes through pretty much every variant of that that we've already heard, plus a few new ones (the inclusion of Will Oldham is inspired- it's like 93's UK-centric sound has suddenly been ripped right open to encompass a whole new realm- as befits an album dealing with the Apocalypse, it all becomes pretty damn universal). And the title track harks right back to the noisier sections of Christ And The Pale Queens Mighty In Sorrow.
Like All The Pretty Little Horses, and Thunder Perfect Mind, it seems like, musically at least, he's taking all the lessons he's learned form the more "minimal" albums in between and putting them all to good use.
People keep asking me which would be a good C93 album to start with, if they're not already familiar with them- this, I reckon, would be a damn good one. It really DOES do everything they're good at, all at once. It's not as heartbreaking as Of Ruine Or Some Blazing Starre, but it's equally as beautiful.
By crikey, I love this album. |
|
|
