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Dusted Reviews
Artist: Wounded Lion Album: IVXLCDM Label: In the Red Review date: Feb. 10, 2012 |
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Besides being the title of the newest Wounded Lion album, IVXLCDM is an inversion of the year the great fire of London took place. The title’s origins are anybody’s guess, but taking an established cultural artifact and applying a prankish dream-logic to it is a recurring theme in Wounded Lion’s catalog. (And, unlike Mika Miko’s C.Y.S.L.A.B.F. — the previous album titled with a cryptic, seven-letter acronym to emerge from the Los Angeles music scene — Wounded Lion’s puzzle is actually solvable.) That Wounded Lion frontman Brad Eberhard is able to turn these cut-and-pasted bits (the album’s title included) into shout-along choruses has been a testament to his songwriting ability, but it also tends to paint Wounded Lion into a sonic corner. IVXLCDM fails to mutate Wounded Lion’s craft in much of a significant way, and at this point, it’s down to whether you’re on board with Eberhard’s methods or not.
The guileless nature of Eberhard’s vocal delivery and the direct, complete-sentence nature of his lyrics have the potential to create a bunch of grating, "what’s your tattoo mean"-type questions about IVXLCDM, but if Wounded Lion’s previous output is any indicator, the obliqueness is not only here to stay, it’s part of the point. Garage rock and indie pop (of which Wounded Lion operate somewhere near the intersection) aren’t exactly known for catering to ambiguity, especially when a band is working in such a dead-simple Chills/Equals/Modern Lovers mold. It’s easy, then, to put Eberhard’s lyrics up against the likes of Jonathan Richman’s and come away feeling like you’re missing something. Whether you’re comfortable with, say, not completely understanding why Eberhard begins quoting "Depression" by Black Flag at the end of "Relaxation Is My Specialty" is pivotal to whether or not you’ll connect with IVXLCDM.
In spite of its abundance of off-the-cuff lyrical moves, the majority of the LP devotes itself to two-chord songs with a couple of talk-sung verses and a shouted chorus. Eberhard brings enough charisma to the table to get by, but the album suffers from a lack of songwriting dynamics. "Raincheck Vibrations" is easily the standout track, and provides a glimpse of what Wounded Lion is capable of on a full-length. At nearly seven minutes, the song’s arrangements are given room to breathe, and Eberhard artfully and intensely describes a couple of episodes of The Love Boat and Batman that he saw. It’s innately ridiculous, but it doesn’t sound ridiculous and, as the song’s title is repeated during its coda, you can’t help but admire Ebersol’s ability to turn pop-culture surrealist poetry into a rallying cry.
Considering both Monty Buckles of LAMPS and Lars Finberg of The Intelligence have been known to perform with Wounded Lion, the understated sophistication in play during the highlights of IVXLCDM is no surprise. With the right personality at the helm, primitive rock and roll can work as an excellent blank canvas for the application of smart idiosyncrasies. But Eberhard’s lyrical and vocal tics don’t typically extend to Wounded Lion’s songwriting, and that’s what ultimately what cuts IVXLCDM off at the knees. Still, it remains an admirable experiment in a field of pop bands that often seem completely terrified of being misunderstood.
By Joe Bernardi
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