Review by Matt Miller
A beating heart overlaid with slowly pulsing synth. Peaceful piano melodies sluggishly build before the serenity surrenders to electronic palpitations, the screech of synth, and a final failure of the heart monitor. But don’t fret, listeners! Beautiful Songs for Ugly Children hits with everything but a cadaverous thud. Still young and potent, even after a long-awaited and much-deserved review, the beauty of the album captures listener attention with character.
“Change. Adapt. Evolve.” begins with a vocal roar that mimics and envelops the death tone that wraps up the intro. The synth throbs, shocking life back into listeners in this heavy, fast-paced, amped up zombie of a track. Of course, with “It’s All Running Out,” listeners find out Beautiful Songs for Ugly Children is not a one trick zombie, as they say. Guitars smooth out a little more and give way to more intricate weaves of synth and electronic melodies on top of an ominously rumbling bassline. It still maintains a high level of energy, but gives listeners something different.
After another electronic instrumental track, “The Death Mantra of All Saints” sounds like…I don’t know…a huge freakin UFO descending on your head—nay; INSIDE your head. Listeners are greeted with another catchy piano melody—Say what?! I thought that goofy piano stuff was limited to the intro! Nevertheless the piano shows up once more to great effect in the first ‘hump’ track, “Buckle and Strap.” Guitars join the piano melody shortly, embellishing but not repeating the descending melody with jagged, sinuous movement before the piano returns to end the song with the same memorable melody.
One of the gems of the CD, “Lotus Under Glass,” is faceted with simple use of several musical elements. The companion ‘hump’ track to “Buckle and Strap” attacks with ambient synth, a moderate rhythm, alternating heavy and higher pitched guitar work, and scream/sing vocals in respective verses and chorus.
After a relatively straightforward guitar driven “Motherblood and Moving Earth” is another instrumental—this time with a muffled tempo, erratic static (hah!), and another sound that reminds me of a UFO. Hey unless there are lyrics to tell me otherwise, I’m going to assume everything is about space aliens! All goofing aside, the instrumentals set and match the mood of the album. This particular track leads flawlessly into the solitary guitar melody in “Losing All.” The vocals set this song apart from others, while the instrumentation maintains the same sort of quality. Bellows pair with a rough singing voice, a combination that appears throughout the album, but achieves full effect with “Losing All.” It’s a nice way to join the concepts of rage and despair rather than saying “I’m sad and pissed!” a la…well a la listeners could probably list a dozen bands with lyrics like that.
Beautiful Songs for Ugly Children breaks down “The Politics of Breaking Down” with a level of moderation. The song is moody like the previous tracks, but despite the lyrics, the music gives a mood of moving on. Although it’s the last track, it specifically welcomes listeners with the lyrics welcome to the politics of breaking down and bleeding out. Perhaps it’s a promise of more music to come despite the problems of making it, but for now consider it a welcome back to the first track, because listeners are bound to leave this CD on repeat for awhile.