Local Album Reviews

awful Purdies

The Great Unraveling

AWFULPURDIES.COM

The Awful Purdies’ new release, The Great Unraveling is a defining statement for these accomplished musicians who combine their strengths, with wearied joy, to perform miracles.

The songs are timely and timeless. The album is proud but not boastful, strong but not brutal, both wise and playful. The sheer quality of the material and the musicians’ deep understanding of the great American songbook allow the songs to feel familiar even on initial listen. The Purdies have taken another step forward both sonically and lyrically to become leaders in the Americana music scene.

The album is a different kind of new, resisting discardable novelty to mine the earth of tradition and voice songs that reflect 2020’s tumult of social upheaval.

The genius of the Purdies, expressed throughout their career, is their unflinching commitment to beauty through collaboration. They achieve greatness by inviting others to share in it. Their folk roots make the tendency to gesture toward injustice a natural fit, and their unflinching feminism is a foundation for their unwavering generosity. They’re capable of potent magic.

The instrumentation on The Great Unraveling is tight and innovative, and the harmonies have never sounded better. The instruments shine in different moments; whether solo or as a flourish in the background, instruments and vocals contribute to the wholeness of each song.

The thematic power of The Great Unraveling stands up and answers to the ugliness and horror that we have witnessed in 2020. And the themes gain power as they intertwine lyrically throughout. A whole is woven even as different Purdies are credited for different songs. “Morning Glory” is a sweet and gentle opener that makes a simple statement against misogynist entitlement. “Why would I be small?” uses a child’s question to discuss the importance of growth and prizing your uniqueness, taking up space without taking it from others.

“In the Dust” is a stark, beautiful meditation on reconciling loss, when memory becomes a venom that leaves you breathless. The title track, “The Great Unraveling,” allows Marcy Rosenbaum’s warm voice to create a holding space, inviting you to join her in confronting the changing world with “arms wide open and with fists held tight.”

The songs are art before they are politics, so never stray into didacticism; however, because they’re real, they also stay far from any fantasy. The result is a catchy album that happens to be about climate change, oppression, friendship, solitude, anger, food and joy. The final track, “Dragging Hope,” provides a perfect conclusion for the year: When you cannot see what good things might be ahead, drag hope behind you.

The album is resolutely uplifting. There are songs of empowered celebration, and the joy of being alive erupts and sparkles consistently throughout the whole. To hear this album and to really listen gives a lesson in how to be a better human in each facet of life. Although nothing will beat watching the Purdies perform live, this soundtrack provides emotional and spiritual guidance through the remainder of the great unraveling yet to occur, until they come together again. —Daniel Boscaljon

bob bucko Jr

You Deserve a Name

PERSONALARCHIVES.BANDCAMP.COM

Bob Bucko Jr is a busy fellow. The Dubuque-based artist has carved out a niche for himself in experimental circles nationwide, largely due to frequent touring and a tireless release schedule through his own Personal Archives imprint. He’s been involved in a number of projects in 2020, including a guest spot on New Standards Men’s masterful drone/space rock epic I Was a Starship, and releases of his own with Sex Funeral, One More Final I Need You, and Arc Numbers (due next year).

One of his latest works is You Deserve a Name, a solo album loosed on the world in October. As he describes it:

“[Name] was a series of ‘meditations’ recorded live to tape in April. Definitely informed by the uncertainty of everything going on back then (and now) ... All the tracks are undergirded by a drone in G, with different elements (sax, oscillators, samples, etc.) playing off that tone.”

Name is a six-part session divided into four 15-minute-plus tracks. Its contents are alternately moody and moodless, shifting between calmness and dread at unexpected intervals. Bare EFX-sax and synth build into walls of noise that take hold without overpowering. The soundscapes switch from hideous to musical, organic to mechanical, evoking everything from synthetic cat sounds to robotic banshee shrieks.

The still moments don’t rest long enough to soothe, and the noise builds towards catharsis but never fully explodes. A bit of odd humor creeps in near the end, with a sample from a bird-watching video. The wooden dialogue and PSA narration is eventually lost to the racket, but not before its own tone shifts with the music from comical to darkly surreal:

“The blue jay is so aggressive, it has been known to attack fullgrown cats invading its territory,” intones the narrator, as the clamor rises anew. “... the blue jay serves as an early warning system to other birds when there is a predator in its territory. Its raucous cry sounds the alarm almost instantly”—here the sample is devoured by the sinister burble of the oscillator, echoing the screaming bird. The audible narration is sucked into the instrumental undertow as the track (and album) slowly peters out into a bleak wash of dying electro-tones.

Despite the pervading uneasiness, the “meditative” description is not misleading. The channeler explains:

“I use the term meditations in sincerity, though I think a lot of people may find the discordant or loud parts and textures off-putting for that kind of thing. But for me, the tension and complications are part of seeing the meditation through. Sort of like an intense mushroom trip that makes you question integral parts of yourself.”

In the right setting, this piece of apocalyptic future-jazz could be a tool for psychic navigation. Such works are vital in these times of spiritual warfare. Bob Bucko Jr is like a Zen master who assails his students, and Name is his ugly mandala. Enlightenment is a harsh process. Open your ears and begin. —Loren Thacher