|
Article appeared in Philadelphia's City Paper on 9/5/96. |
|
"Limbo Rock: Go through heaven and hell to see music this week" by Margit Detweiler Limbo. The art of waiting around. A state between good and bad, heaven and hell.
The place you won't be this week. Because there's plenty to do. It's as if it were the first week of September. Oh. Right. It is. Next week we'll post our sneak previews of all that is "best" for fall in the worlds of art, music and assorted diversions, but this week looks so good, I can't help but suggest several options. But back to Limbo... It's a perfect title for the Throwing Muses' seventh album even though there are both heavenly, violin-spun sounds and nightmarish (though witty) visions. Lead singer/guitarist Kristin Hersh says she picked the title because it had no meaning. It was just a song on the album, and one she knew would never be a single. "We hate titling our record," says Hersh, calling from "somewhere in Texas... I have no idea where we are, maybe Austin. "We did go to heaven and we did go to hell making this album," she laughs. "Oh, that sounds like such a pretentious thing to do, to make it so poetic like that, like we're telling the songs what to do. But we can't pretend otherwise," she adds. Hersh's involvement in packaging the Throwing Muses album might be one way for her to take charge, since she says she's not responsible for how the songs are created. Diagnosed with bipolarity, Hersh has long said that she hallucinates and sees "song bodies" when she writes music - that the music comes "out of the wall." It's not a pleasant experience, says Hersh. Songs wake her up in the middle of the night. "When they start playing, it's so loud I can't go back to sleep." Since her college days in Rhode Island in 1986, when she founded the Muses with half-sister Tanya Donelly (now with Belly), this is the way the Muses' mesmerizing pop songs have been created. "I've never been able to make songs do anything I want to do," she says. "I've learned to shut up more. I don't censor them. I make my mouth sing and let them finish their thought. It's (a mistake) to let craft overtake inspiration. If you do that, then you are communicating something you already knew. Chances are (the listener) already knows it, too. It's not what you have to say, it's what music has to say." The music says plenty on Limbo. Serene is one of the most seductive - its deceptively simple chorus does seem to move of its own accord. Freeloader is darkly comic with flamenco-flavored guitars. Hersh's voice is strong and charged when she sings, "I don't hear, I don't hear/ I'm a freethinker" - a sharp contrast to her signature warble. And the bone-jangling, danceable The Field, like most of the works on this album, is another melodic surprise. Hersh seems to discover new ways of being catchy where most modern rockers just imitate. The album's refreshingly clean production showcases every twitchy, curious arrangement. Limbo is the first album on her own Throwing Music/ Rykodisc label. After many years, the band left Sire/Reprise on good terms, Hersh says. "They were holding on to us for the best of reasons. They thought we should be making records, but we thought we should leave at the height of our success. People are always accusing us of trying not to be successful. We've never been after a hit. But that's a problem for a machine, like a record company, that's obliged to work off of a band's hits. We just want to do what we do and make a living." The Throwing Muses will undoubtedly pack the Khyber Pass tonight, Thursday, Sept.5th, 56 S. 2nd Street 1-215-440-9683 |
The title of the new, exquisite
Throwing Muses album.