Emma Pollock
(Chemikal Underground)
Delgados co-guitarist/co-vocalist Emma Pollock went solo after the Scottish band's amicable split in 2005 and issued her debut, Watch the Fireworks, on 4AD in 2007. The album's blend of atmospheric, almost shoegazey textures and fizzy indiepop showed bundles of potential, and for the new Law of Large Numbers, she wonderfully fulfills that potential even as she thwarts easy expectations. Produced by another former Delgado, Paul Savage (who happens to be Pollock's husband), it's being billed as an "unconventional" recording, and that's not a bad way to characterize the dozen songs' mélange of baroque pop, vocal-heavy arrangements, Dixieland jazz and vintage Prog flourishes, and rhythmic changeups.
Aficionados of Britindie and art-rock will swoon for much of this material. Chief among the highlights: the thrumming, rippling "I Could Be A Saint," with its brittle guitar riffs, subtle Terry Riley-ish keyboard undercurrent, and yummy girl-group choruses; the angular, postpunk-flavored pop of "Red Orange Green," which cleverly utilizes a morphing lyric motif (the heart's "beat-beat-beat," a door's "creak-creak-creak," a clock's "tic-tock, tic-tock") to provide the tune with an insistent percussion theme; the hypnotic "The Loop," a minimalist, part-round, part-a capella number that instantly summons images of a certain traditional Christmas song (I won't spoil the surprise); and the carnivalesque "Chemistry Will Find Me," whose lurching/wheezing/menacing, almost Tom Waitsian arrangement contrasts delightfully with Pollock's eyelash-batting, precisely-yet-seductively delivered lines that make her sound she stepped right off the screen from Moulin Rouge. (Pollock's friend and Domino Records recording artist Adem guests on the latter track.) Unconventional, indeed, is the operative term here, because for such a wee gal she's certainly got a room-filling voice, and the big ambitions to go with it.
Less wieldy, perhaps, is the lyrical concept being pushed: Pollock wants to draw a parallel between the titular theorem (about predicting probability outcomes in, for example, gambling with dice) and how in life and love, humans are prone to calculate risk and expectation even in the face of the natural world's randomness. Thematic conceit alert! Nevertheless, the music and Pollock's clear-as-a-bell vocals more than make up for whatever potentially dubious topic she wants to sing about, so let's split the difference and say she's entitled.
This album, incidentally, marks a homecoming of sorts for Pollock: the record is released by Chemikal Underground, which the Delgados established in the early ‘90s to champion the then-burgeoning Scottish underground, issuing records by the likes of Mogwai, Arab Strap, Aereogramme and, uh, Magoo. I'll confess to being only an intermittent fan of the Delgados themselves, for during their decade-long run, although all the "right" indierock tastemakers (Pitchfork, Magnet, etc.) sang their praises, their penchant for trying on other band's hats - Sonic Youth on one album, Pavement the next, the Pixies another, and Flaming Lips yet another - suggested a group flailing around for an identity. That said, each album did contain kernels of brilliance, and had they continued they just might have broken through.
Law of Large Numbers, however, is just good enough to make me want to revisit Pollock's voice in its original context, and with that in mind I have no doubt that I may also eventually reassess my opinion of the band. After all, being a rock critic means never having to say you're certain.
Standout Tracks: "Red Orange Green," "Chemistry Will Find Me" FRED MILLS
