The last Boduf Songs album featured a reproduction of a Zdzisław Beksiński painting. His fantastic art always conveys a sense of doom which reaches far beyond the borders of the picture itself. On this album, Mathew Sweet fully captures this same sense of unearthly displacement: "There’s no way out and no way home." The music of Boduf Songs has also been pushed further than before; while the dreamy campfire arrangements are still present there is also a massive diversion into previously unexplored (at least by Sweet and company) musical territories. The end result is the best Boduf Songs album yet.
Sonically, "I Bought Myself a Cat O Nine" picks up from where How Shadows Chase the Balance left off: poised chords and Mathew Sweet’s hushed vocals come together to make a textbook Boduf Songs piece. The lyrics brim with a violence which should be unsuited to the music but work all the better because of the incongruity: "My hammer feels the urge to nail you to the ground." With the album beginning so predictably for Sweet (although predictability does not occlude beauty), my jaw dropped during the second song "Decapitation Blues." After an unassuming opening, it erupts into powerful and sinuous bass riff with crashing drums. I would expect something like this from a band like Grails but hearing Sweet’s vocals over it brings it into a whole other realm.
Halfway through the album, it sounds like the wrong music is on the record. "I Have Decided to Pass Through Matter" both reads as a very Coil-esque title but their influence is felt deeper with the warped vocal samples and artificial sounds. However, this is not simply pastiche as a delicate acoustic guitar melody cuts through the murky noise. Boduf Songs pull their music into more unorthodox forms during "The Giant Umbilical Cord That Connects Your Brain to the Centre of the Universe;" ebow drones almost overpower the harmonious roots of the song, deliberately obscuring what logically should be the focus of attention.
Stepping back and considering the album as a whole, I cannot help but be impressed at how Boduf Songs bring together such a heavy atmosphere with so much melody. This Alone Above All Else in Spite of Everything sounds unified in a way that many other albums fail to achieve; I can understand why this is on LP only as it forces us to digest the album in one sitting instead of it being put on shuffle or dissected into playlists. The darkly transcendental lyrics sketch out grim but psychedelic episodes which weave together around a central point. The thematic elements of the album run like stitches through the songs, drawing them tight to each other and each one revealing a little of another. The overall impact of the album increases with each time I listen to it, I can say now that this will be looked back on as a highpoint in Boduf Songs’ already superb oeuvre.
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