Violent Femmes – New Times – 1994 (iTunes – Amazon)
This is actually the one I’ve been dreading. I was sent this for review when I was writing for Home Theater Technology 17 years ago. I listened to one track, got distracted by something and decided to write about something else. And then I never got back to it.
That’s probably a good thing. Because I don’t think I would have been as forgiving back then as I am now.
New Times is a difficult record. It is so OBVIOUSLY a Violent Femmes record. And the opening track, “Don’t Start Me On The Liquor” is pretty good. Somewhere in the middle it breaks into a bass led jam that reminds me of “Black Girls” from Hallowed Ground. Maybe it’s the addition of Guy Hoffman replacing Victor DeLorenzo on drums that has given the album the muscle that it has. I don’t know. It’s a pretty dark album.
If “Why Do Birds Sing?” was a return to the debut album sense of “Fun Thru Angst!” this is the follow up to Hallowed Ground.
There are a couple stand out tracks.
Breakin’ Up shows the band feeling it’s stadium rock oats. Not sure what stadium they imagine themselves playing and truth be told, the song is so dark that it would have probably been better served as a stripped down intimate tune al a the stuff from the previous records. But it’s also pretty catchy.
The title track wants to be about something bigger and goes so far as to change itself up a couple times that it almost resembles an attempt at rock opera, but it ultimately fails.
I would really like to have been there, though, when Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie came up with, “Machine”. Because I would have done everything I could to talk them out of it. What the world does NOT need from the Violent Femmes is mediocre synth-laden, pedantic industrial rock. Who thought this was a good idea??? For me, this is like when Marky Ramone put out a rap album. The album loses an entire grade simply because of this incredibly stupid track.
Gano knows how to write the same song over and over again, which he does on “I’m Nothing” & the ballad “When Everybody’s Happy.” They’re fine, but we’ve been there and Gordon doesn’t seem to have much new to say.
This is definitely an eclectic batch of songs. Gordon seems to feel restrained by and yet bask in the idiom that is the Femmes’ sound.
I do have a soft spot for Kurt Weill and when bands like Green Day visit that style I get a little excited. The Femmes don’t really succeed with it on Mirror Mirror (I See A Damsel) but I give them props for trying. And to follow that with the oompa closer Jesus of Rio….the album just sort of gives up.
Ultimately, New Times isn’t really about new times, but revisiting old times with less success.
Grade C-
A Side: Don’t Start Me On The Liquor, Breakin’ Up,
BlindSide: Key of 2, This Island Life, Mirror Mirror (I See A Damsel)
Downside: 4 Seasons, Machine, Jesus of Rio, Agamenon
