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Pink Grease, "This is For Real"
Mute
The albums title serves as a perplexing contradiction, as there is verylittle that is truly real about Pink Grease, from certain syntheticelements of their concept to their synthesizers. No doubt it is tonguein cheek, as the amount of mugging and jiving the band does on thealbum indicates it has a strong sense of irony (though maybe not asstrong with humor and discernment). "Remember Forever" opens the discwith singer Rory Lewarne doing his best to channel Lux Interior,flinging trashy rockabilly phrasing against somewhat morestraightforward guitar riffing. By the point the song enters into itsboy-girl call and response breakdown, the Pink Grease have made a goodargument that they while their influences aren't exactly a secret,there might be something to this whole thing. "Fever" unfortunatelytrades in any number of rock/dance clichés, from the oscillating twonote riff we've all heard a thousand times before to lyrical turns ofphrase about being on a mission, how a girl drives him crazy, and howthat is quite like having a fever. "The Pink G.R. EASE" puts the bandin the league of bands like Big Country who perform a song named afterthe band, though with slightly more pleasant results. It's a modestdance anthem (Dancethem? Perhaps I have coined the next absurd musicalphrase!) that serves its role quite well. "Party Live," whilerelentlessly catchy, also brings up the questionable intents of whitepeople using the word "nigger" to give their songs some kind of edge. Iam sure there are innumerable graduate theses to be referred to on thissubject, but my own personal take is that it is the clearest indicationof posing and posturing there ever could be. In this case it isunfortunate, not just for the ambiguous societal implications, but alsobecause "Party Live" is a pretty fun song, marred by an attempt to sexit up-looking for a shortcut to evocative sleaze and seedy fun withoutwanting to work for it. In spite of these issues, Pink Grease managesto do their best when forgetting about their Cramps aspirations andquasi-ironic image and puts together some really great songs that arejust this side of power-pop. "Wind Up Bird" sails along on a solidmelody replete with vocal tradeoffs and jangly guitar lines that makeit a strong contender for song of the year. "Peaches," the followingtrack is in a similar vein, looking toward a more honest sound andfeeling than any of the glam-trash affectations of yesteryear. Whilethe band does score some good hits with their purported shtick andpremise, these songs are the strongest on the whole disc, anddemonstrate that Pink Grease is capable of something more than they leton. Pink Grease is undeniably catchy, and at their best will force assshaking (nobody could listen to "Superfool" and not find themselvesimmersed in it), but at their worst they sound like a slightly lessobvious Electric Six with lyrics like "I wanna fucking die for you / Iwanna die fucking you." There is room for growth here, and hopefully inthe future, Pink Grease will eschew the gimmick and explode with thepotential that they surely have.
The albums title serves as a perplexing contradiction, as there is verylittle that is truly real about Pink Grease, from certain syntheticelements of their concept to their synthesizers. No doubt it is tonguein cheek, as the amount of mugging and jiving the band does on thealbum indicates it has a strong sense of irony (though maybe not asstrong with humor and discernment). "Remember Forever" opens the discwith singer Rory Lewarne doing his best to channel Lux Interior,flinging trashy rockabilly phrasing against somewhat morestraightforward guitar riffing. By the point the song enters into itsboy-girl call and response breakdown, the Pink Grease have made a goodargument that they while their influences aren't exactly a secret,there might be something to this whole thing. "Fever" unfortunatelytrades in any number of rock/dance clichés, from the oscillating twonote riff we've all heard a thousand times before to lyrical turns ofphrase about being on a mission, how a girl drives him crazy, and howthat is quite like having a fever. "The Pink G.R. EASE" puts the bandin the league of bands like Big Country who perform a song named afterthe band, though with slightly more pleasant results. It's a modestdance anthem (Dancethem? Perhaps I have coined the next absurd musicalphrase!) that serves its role quite well. "Party Live," whilerelentlessly catchy, also brings up the questionable intents of whitepeople using the word "nigger" to give their songs some kind of edge. Iam sure there are innumerable graduate theses to be referred to on thissubject, but my own personal take is that it is the clearest indicationof posing and posturing there ever could be. In this case it isunfortunate, not just for the ambiguous societal implications, but alsobecause "Party Live" is a pretty fun song, marred by an attempt to sexit up-looking for a shortcut to evocative sleaze and seedy fun withoutwanting to work for it. In spite of these issues, Pink Grease managesto do their best when forgetting about their Cramps aspirations andquasi-ironic image and puts together some really great songs that arejust this side of power-pop. "Wind Up Bird" sails along on a solidmelody replete with vocal tradeoffs and jangly guitar lines that makeit a strong contender for song of the year. "Peaches," the followingtrack is in a similar vein, looking toward a more honest sound andfeeling than any of the glam-trash affectations of yesteryear. Whilethe band does score some good hits with their purported shtick andpremise, these songs are the strongest on the whole disc, anddemonstrate that Pink Grease is capable of something more than they leton. Pink Grease is undeniably catchy, and at their best will force assshaking (nobody could listen to "Superfool" and not find themselvesimmersed in it), but at their worst they sound like a slightly lessobvious Electric Six with lyrics like "I wanna fucking die for you / Iwanna die fucking you." There is room for growth here, and hopefully inthe future, Pink Grease will eschew the gimmick and explode with thepotential that they surely have.
