$

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:48:56
Audio Mixer: Mark Sultan. Recording information: Hoodoo Recording Studio, Montreal (2008). Montreal roustabout Mark Sultan has circled the punk rock block and come back again as one-half of the doo wop/garage duo the King Khan & BBQ Show, and as a member of, among other outfits, the Spaceshits, Les Sexereenos, Mind Controls, and the All-Mighty Defenders (alongside Khan and the Black Lips). Sultan's solo work under his own name (he also performs and records as the one-man-band BBQ) contains traces of the sounds found in his other projects, but is something stranger and more personal. Like its predecessor, Sultanic Verses, $ flirts with vintage R&B, `60s psychedelia, greasy R&B, 1977-style punk, and, of course, doo wop, all within a gritty, stripped-down framework. Where Sultan's contributions to the King Khan & BBQ Show ultimately result in upbeat, soul-stirring party music, his solo work can be introspective, gloomy, and schizophrenic. An extraordinarily talented individual, Sultan appears to be a deeply dissatisfied one, as well "It makes me glad/to contemplate your doom," Sultan croons (in what is easily one of rock's best voices anywhere) on "Don't Look Back"; while "Misery Is Upon Us" pretty much says it all. The album's stomping rhythms and cheerful ooh-wah-oohs envelop and sweeten this darker core. There is also, however, an experimental element here that gives the album a warped, unsteady feel, as if Sultan's anxieties and paranoia have spilled on to the recording console, exposed for the entire world to consider. This tension between sunny rock & roll and intruding madness makes for an occasionally difficult but ultimately excellent album. Less a work that fits neatly into the garage punk canon of the late 2000s and early 2010s, $ is more akin to something like Alex Chilton's Like Flies on Sherbert, an album that practically dares the listener to find the genius beneath gunk-covered genre workouts, tossed-off pop nuggets, and rickety experimentalism. Rest assured, $ (as with the Chilton album) is worth the struggle. ~ Nate Knaebel