Yawning Abyss

Album review

Given the busy schedules of John Grant and Wrangler, it wouldn't have been surprising if their collaboration Creep Show had ended with their 2018 album, Mr. Dynamite. On Yawning Abyss, however, they not only continue the freewheeling creative momentum of their debut, they also present a tighter, more engaging incarnation of their satirical techno, funk, and electro-pop. Mr. Dynamite's deadpan drollery lives on in the cheeky percussion and synth tones on "Steak Diane," where choppy vocal samples and electronics bounce and whoosh with the loopiness of novelty music, but Creep Show spends most of Yawning Abyss taking risks. Most notably, they strip away much of the vocal processing that dominated Mr. Dynamite. Letting Grant and Stephen Mallinder's untreated voices ring out adds more color and humanity to moments such as "Moneyback," which pits Mallinder's dry delivery and Grant's nimble cadence against the grind of an all-consuming capitalist machine. On "Matinee," Mallinder's smoky whispers are the perfect complement to the track's serpentine industrial-disco. When Creep Show do use vocal effects, they do it artfully: Grant is transformed into a robotic voice of judgment ready to give up on the human race ("You are complicit/But you still do not get it") on "The Bellows," Yawning Abyss' poignantly angry prologue. Here and throughout the album, Creep Show fully live up to their name by confronting society's most disgusting qualities with equal parts humor and horror. Yawning Abyss reaches its cathartic peak with "Yahtzee," a cartoonishly scathing portrait of a culture that distracts itself with trivial pursuits while "Nazis tear the country apart," but its more complex songs have just as much impact. The title track's sunny nihilism and nostalgia recall the literary tone of Grant's Boy from Michigan, as does "Bungalow," a suspenseful character sketch that skillfully balances melodrama and gritty realism. Mallinder takes the lead on "Wise," another shadowy standout that traces the journey of getting savvy to the world's disappointments (key lyric: "There is no last laugh"). At once more serious and more playful than Mr. Dynamite, Yawning Abyss homes in on what Creep Show do best, and the ways they skewer corruption and indifference are a treat for fans of any of the artists involved and for anyone else who enjoys eloquent, darkly humorous electronic pop.
© Heather Phares /TiVo