Eleventh Dream Day
(Thrill Jockey)
It's been five years since the last Eleventh Dream Day album, but Riot Now! is like the battered car that rattles immediately to life on a cold morning. Rick Rizzo pursues a beefy, City-of-Big-Shoulders guitar style, in line with local contemporaries like Silkworm and Red Red Meat, and not a little indebted to Crazy Horse.
Rizzo and co-founder Janet Beveridge Bean share vocals, Rizzo's a serrated growl made for cutting through bullshit, Bean's a shock of melodic sweetness and light. A conversation rumbles underneath between Tortoise bassist Doug McCombs and Bean on drums. Keyboard player Mark Greenberg locks in on organ, transforming repetition into hypnosis on album highlight "Sonic Reactor." The tune slows and dirties a classic soul riff, using Keith Richards' trick of playing horns on guitar. Later a long psychedelic solo careens over the rhythmic pulse, a bit of chaos integrated into the album's tightest beat. Softer, more melodic, but just as powerful is "That's What's Coming," whose folky contours bend under the force of wailing guitars. "Freefall is the best/It's when you can't rest," sings Rizzo on the track.
After half a decade, rest time's over. Bring on the freefall.
DOWNLOAD: "Sonic Reactor," "That's What's Coming" JENNIFER KELLY
