Paul's Tomb: A Triumph

Album review

British Columbia’s Frog Eyes have amassed a substantive body of work since their 2002 debut, and their fifth full-length offering, Paul's Tomb: A Triumph, stands hoof to horn with the best of their efforts. The inimitable Carey Mercer is still a force to be reckoned with, and his frenetic delivery and seizure-inducing lyrics are in full effect, but there is an elegance in the chaos this time around (can bile mature?) that suggests a mild sea change for the bloody pulpit, indie rock preacher/secondary school English teacher. Nowhere is that more evident than on the epic opening cut, “Flower in a Glove,” a slow-building nine-minute love rant that toasts “A saint, a flower in a glove, a night made for the raising of your glass.” It’s hardly the soundtrack to flames licking at your feet, or the audio equivalent of naked, writhing succubi plucking out your eyeballs in a Hieronymus Bosch painting (though there is much of that to be found in Paul’s mostly miserable tomb). Other standout cuts like “Sensitive Girls,” “Rebel Horns,” and “Violent Psalms” are similar in their accessibility (for a Frog Eyes record), and the addition of new member Megan Boddy, whose lovely, ethereal croon serves as a near mythological foil to Mercer’s tortured wail, provides occasional respite from all of the damnation, but there’s no denying the raw, punk-infused foundation on which each cut is built and then lovingly detailed. As is the case with nearly every other Frog Eyes release, Paul’s Tomb may be riddled with claw marks, broken needles, vomiting angels, and eternal suffering, but it’s well worth the visit.
© James Christopher Monger /TiVo