I may as well admit this before I go on: Miss America is one of my favorite records of all time. I remember I saw her perform as part of Nick Cave's Meltdown two years ago. I got so excited when she came onstage that I shouted "Mary - I miss you!!". She replied "Well, I don't miss you...I see you every day." That probably tells us a little of the expectation she has felt in the intervening 15 years since Miss America, and why she has chosen to put this out as a soundtrack rather then a 'proper' album.
But all the elements that made Miss America so incredible are all there; Rusty McCarthy's pristine, Derek Bailey-like guitar playing; odd time signatures that shift and pull like Miles Davis; and that voice—swooping upwards, catching in her throat, gibbering and crooning like Billie Holiday crossed with Patti Smith.
The most stunning tracks on the album are the most conventional; 'Never Came Back' swings like 'Shiny Beast'-period Beefheart with O'Hara doing her most conventional singing yet. The song then promptly disintegrates into a lose and limbre jazz shuffle, and O'Hara begins a slow crescendo of manic scatting. 'Scary Latin Love Song' is O'Hara in dementia mode; over a hyperventilating Ozomatli-type Latin groove, she gibbers in Hispanic, squawks, shrieks and then calms down. The album is pervaded with a 'Taxi Driver' sense of disquiet, and it's only once -- on the joyous 'Have You Gone', where the Leningrand Cowboys meets Patsy Cline -- that there's sense of resolution. Then it closes with the ludicrous 'Hello Yellow Goose', with O'Hara's voice distorted beyond recognition over what sounds like Shock Headed Peters.
Welcome back Mary. -
 
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