Scotland Yard Gospel Choir

For their second album, the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir have forsaken their pop aspirations for a darker, more cynical sound with echoes of the British new wave bands of the late 70s and lyrics that deal with the horrors of modern life. Songs about alienation, obsession, terror, disease, drugs and an epic about a kid who gets tortured by his classmates because hes different are the bill of faire, but if your taste is more for the grim than the gaudy, youll probably sit down and eagerly gobble up these nine gloomy entrees. The Yards core of Ellen OHayer (cello, bass, vocals); Elia Einhorn (organ, guitar); Sam Koentopp (drums, vocals) and Matthew Kerstein (guitar, vocals) are augmented by 15 members of the Bloodshot roster including Sally Timms, Kelly Hogan, and producer Mark Yoshizumi. Aspidistra looks back unapologetically on a youth of drug taking and run-ins with the police, with a bass driven backing track that sounds a bit like the Buzzcocks at their most melodic. In Hospital is a song for a dead friend. OHayers fragile vocal and the minimal backing of a tack piano give the tune a haunted, hopeless feeling. I Never Thought I Could Feel This Way for a Boy is a beautiful song about coming out, although the protagonist of the tune doesnt know quite what to feel about his love for another boy. Musically its bright and poppy, lifted up by syncopated handclaps and OHayers mellow cello. Everything You Paid For closes the disc with a harrowing tale of a young boy coping with the daily humiliations handed out by the local gang of bullies. The music has a gospel feel accented by a churchy duo of piano and organ. OHayers vocal is augmented by an actual choir of backing voices. The songs ambivalent ending -- did the boy kill himself or finally find a supportive peer group? -- adds to its power. The coda, the sound of the belabored breathing of someone fighting back tears, and a faintly heard church organ bring the song and the album to a chilling close. ~ j. poet