Bloodletting

Amazon.com
Concrete Blonde's best and most mainstream album benefits considerably from a stronger focus and good production. Consistent songwriting means a lack of weak material, and the dark inflection of most of the music gives the songs an edge. The title track remains a favorite of the goth set, though it was the hit single "Joey" that garnered the most attention. The up-tempo songs are the best; "The Sky Is a Poisonous Garden", "Days and Days", and "The Beast" really stand out. Of the slower songs, "Tomorrow, Wendy" has an irony that gives it an edge. Concrete Blonde's later albums don't really measure up to the quality of this one. -- Genevieve Williams

Reader Reviews
"Bloodletting" remains Concrete Blonde's darkest, most masterful album. Mixing the gothic with the tragic (relationships gone sour -- "Caroline" refers to a "sad hallucination), it's dark and twisted, cynical and sad and angry. In short, it brims over with strong emotion and good music. The brooding "Bloodletting" evokes the world of Anne Rice's bloodsuckin' charmers, with its references to vampires, New Orleans, and "I may never see the light." The more uptempo "The Sky Is A Poisonous Garden" is still tragic, as is the catchy "Caroline" and the eerily poppy "Darkening of the Light." "I Don't Need A Soldier" brims with bitterness and independence, while the blasting "Beast" is full of savage and romantic imagery, more vampires and ghosts. And "Tomorrow Wendy" is a pure cry of pain against God and an unjust world. (The religious may want to shy away from this last one, as it will probably offend) The gothic flavor of "Bloodletting" is deceptive, with all its abandoned houses, vampires and blood, monsters and ghosts. The music, no matter how catchy it becomes, is never light and airy. It's relentlessly dark, sad at least and angry at most, claiming that "love is the leech... love is a vampire." The murky, creeping guitar seeps through the angsty songs like blood on the water. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of "Bloodletting" is the singing. While Johnette Napolitano clearly poured a lot of pain into these songs, as you can see in the writing, the emotion somehow doesn't filter through her rather low, occasionally hard to hear voice. But her growling works wonderfully in the less sad, more embittered songs. Painful and dark, this is nevertheless a a spooky ride down into a gothic world of beasts, vampires, and love gone wrong in a dark way. A little flawed, but haunting (literally).  Comment | Permalink |  (Report this)


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