Work, The: Slow Crimes (reissue)

Another recording from the Cold Storage School of Socially Conscious Alternative Art Rock, Slow Crimes was originally released in 1982, and 2007 finds that its teeth are still in fine shape. There's an unrelenting sense of discovery to the music, setting seemingly contradictory sounds and words side-by-side in a headlong rush to disorient or re-orient you and your ideas about sound and culture.

As for the music, it's hard to imagine a better use for the highly supplemented line-up of typical rock instrumentation. While the instruments provide some familiarity, the structure of the pieces themselves resist classification. Jagged, disjunctive, unrestful and often breaking into those short-term heroic poses that rapidly collapse in on themselves, the soundstage is set for widespread contraindication. The music of Slow Crimes usually favors a top-heavy eq, with only occasional bass presence. This seeming imbalance is one of many structural and production feints against typical and commercially-defined perceptions, a subversion of what-is-accepted that seems a key component to the raison d'etre of much of The Work's work. In this single instance of atypical eq, The Work offers a nearly perfect supporting sympathy to corrupting the work Fletcher and Munson. Add all the other rule-breaking and we're propelled to just completely reconsider rock.

The lyrics – at turns biting, satirical and outraged – strike against the ear in that sort of spoken, sort of shouted, sort of operatic style – one which proves to be a hallmark of the original alternative vein, before someone somewhere decided that "alternative" only meant "grunge" – that again urges the listener to leave preconceptions behind. Ears wide open, sophisticated and seductively abrasive, The Work never slows down, never compromises. Slow Crimes comprises most of the pieces also made available on the recently reissued Live in Japan. Don't hesitate to have both on hand – the live versions add completely new shapes to the studio recordings, while The Work adds emphatic meaning to the madness of the world.

Track Listing
1) Nearly Empty
2) Balance
3) Pop
4) Flies
5) Like This
6) Knives
7) Cain & Abel
8) State Room
9) Brickyard
10) Do It
11) Le Travail
12) Maggot Song

Added: February 20th 2007
Reviewer: Kerry Leimer
Score:
Related Link: ReR Megacorp USA
Hits: 2617
Language: english

[ Printer Friendly Page ]
[ Send to a Friend ]