With
McNeilly
in to provide a little more human swing to the proceedings -- appropriate given
Denison
's own
jazz
-madness tendencies --
the Jesus Lizard
fully launched themselves on an unsuspecting world with
Head
. The brutal, bass-heavy slam of the music, testament to the uncredited engineering/producing abilities of
Steve Albini
, gives the whole record a punch that most
indie rock
didn't have at the time, looking ahead to where similarly minded groups like
Helmet
(also produced by
Albini
) would end up soon enough. The
/
Sims
rhythm dictates the songs, letting
and
Yow
both find their own way over the chugging brusqueness as they see fit.
for the most part sounds like he's singing through a wall or through a huge amount of cotton gauze, making his lyrical tales of violence, twisted living, and the like one for lyric-sheet readers to work out, but the amped-up roars and leers evident in his vocals do a fine job on their own. Then again, the song titles aren't exactly ones to suggest flowers and roses, as
"My Own Urine,"
"Waxeater,"
and the perfectly creepy
"If You Had Lips"
make rather clear.
's
Birthday Party
worship is now one more readily shared by the band with
's presence, the fusion of dark
blues
proto-punk
rampage --
in fact, being a good example of just that -- let to run loose. The stentorian stomp of
"7 vs. 8"
and the stabbing attack of
"Good Thing"
in particular might as well be early
Cave
on the vocals,
in mad-preacher mode in excelsis. There's a definite weird playful touch all the band's own, though, whether it's in the sassy strut that starts
or even, on the start of
"Pastoral,"
a bit of chiming guitar prettiness. ~ Ned Raggett