Pigface "Easy Listening... For Difficult Fuckheads" Invisible / Underground Inc 1037 2002 (47:15)
Mind Your Own Business (3:25)
Insect/Suspect (3:53)
Sweetmeat (3:10)
Bitch (3:10)
Everything (3:29)
Closer To Heaven (5:12)
Blow You Away (3:28)
Du Liebst Mich Nicht, Ich Lieb' Dich Nicht (4:20)
King Of Negativity (3:36)
Miss Sway Action (4:11)
Binary Stream (3:18)
The Loneliest Sound I've Ever Heard (3:19)
The Horse You Rode In On (2:44)
Ah, Pigface ... chances are you either love them or hate them. I've always liked them and, often, loved them because of the things that set them apart from the legions of look-a-like and sound-a-like industrial-rock clones: a forever fluid membership (including many females), variety, groove and an actual sense of humor. Drummer/producer Martin Atkins is rightfully proud of his 12-year-old baby - an unruly child with multiple personality disorder - and this time around there's over 40 others, old and new, helping him feed, diaper and discipline it. All of the 13 tracks are restrained to the three to four minute range (only one exceeds five minutes) and I can't help but notice that most of the ones I dislike are the ones in which Atkins has no writing credit. Even though there aren't really rules as to what is and what isn't "Pigface", about half of this album is run-of-the-mill or out of place and just doesn't feel like Pigface to me. Let me touch on the ones that do ...
"Mind Your Own Business" and "Sweetmeat" prove that you can write cool songs about anything, even privacy via a "can I have a taste of your ice cream?" metaphor and unfortunate encounters with animals. "Insect/Suspect" is an instant classic with bash and crash drums, Keith Levene-esque guitar (he actually appears on another track) by Kittie's Fallon Bowman and Hate Dept's Seibold and Chris Connelly trading off verse and chorus vocals. "Closer To Heaven" is the "hit" as it were. Dripping with sitars and underpinned by Charles Levi's liquid bass line, Thrill Kill Kult's Groovie Mann is backed by Nocturne's Lacey Conner in refrains of "I'm closer to heaven when I'm with you, I'm closer to heaven without you". "Du Liebst Mich Nicht, Ich Lieb' Dich Nicht ("You Don't Love Me, I Don't Love You") sees the successful return of En Esch for another German language sing-a-long. In "Miss Sway Action" Connelly croons poetry over a lo-fi synth and percussion setting by Machines of Loving Grace/Stabbing Westward alumnus David Suycott. That leaves all the rest: heavies dabbling in industrial rock and metal clichés (some of these will be fun live), a cyberpunk spoken word piece by Jared Louche, drum 'n bass filler and a vaguely amusing addition to the "fucks" list led by the talking half of Penn & Teller. The "United" North American tour featuring Pigface, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Zeromancer and Bile will hit the road in mid-March ...
Pigface
at Invisible Records
Underground Inc.
Where did I get this cd? - mail order via CD Universe.