CD Review: Drowning Susan - The End Of Everything

Written by Eva Brem Tuesday, 07 February 2012 11:07

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Artist: Drowning Susan
Title: The End Of Everything
Genre: Future Pop/ Dark wave/ Electro
Release Date: 11 November 2011
Label: Independent

Album Review

DROWNING SUSAN’s ‘The End Of Everything’ is quite something - opinionated, political electro pop/dark wave where innocent tunes hide somewhat uneasy message about the mankind and its activities. Sounds like a cliché? Believe me, it is not. The band lists SKINNY PUPPY and KMFDM among their inspirations and yes, there is some of that in it but overall it is something totally new and fresh. Personally, I have fallen in love with the combination of sweet melodies and witty, simple and sometimes plain mean lyrics that leave little hope as to the future of our species and our planet. Here are some samples: The track entitled ‘Capacity’ carries a rather punchy message: Soon there will be no space left, maybe you should stop fucking? In ‘Filth’ we get the following: We kill, destroy, we burn, we suck. What we don’t smash we try to fuck. Yes, it is simple but how accurate? And moreover, it is all served nicely on a plate of catchy future pop tunes with a dash of dark wave to make it all go down rather smoothly. Tasty dark synths make it even more palatable.

There is quite a bit of sampling on this album but all the samples fit in extremely well, so it is not just filling the gaps with some easy stuff. The track ‘Ceremony’ features Doctor Who, ‘The End of the World’ (Cassandra: “The planet's end! Come gather, come gather! Bid farewell to the cradle of civilization!”). ‘Filth’ brings us the famous quote from ‘The Great Dictator’ (1940): “…we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate…” The smartest piece of sampling on this album is undoubtedly ‘Freakshow’, a track that in my opinion will conquer the dance-floors very soon. It’s fast and punchy and while you start enjoying the rhythm, you also begin to hear the depressing speech given by Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski, former US National Security Advisor. This speech was given on the on the MSNBC’s Morning Joe show as seems to be highly critical of the current state of affairs. It is too long to quote it on here but you can check it on the internet. It starts with the following: “But I worry about the other side of that, which is the one percent of the richest, who have the benefits of tax loopholes, and of preferential arrangements, and whoop it up without any responsibility, social responsibility, for our lives here in...”

‘The End Of Everything’ is innocent on the outside but vengeful when you scratch the surface. Although the lyrics can be seen as preachy, their hard-shell message seems to be well balanced out by the catchy tunes. There are some harsher compositions on this album, such as ‘Destroyer’ but overall it is on the lighter side. From the band’s MySpace profile: “Sounds Like: everything you've ever heard before rolled into one big mess...” On this rare occasion this is undoubtedly a good thing - they do not hide their influences yet they remain original. I suspect those who like to have a poke at the humankind will be particularly pleased with this album while those who do not like to overexert their cerebrum may feel a bit uneasy since the simplicity of the slogans makes it impossible to ignore them. The message of this album is simple and dished out in a very forward way - it is a bill of indictment served on the human race. Extremely enjoyable though!


Tracklist

01. Learning (intro) - 2:08
02. Humans - 4:20
03. Capacity - 3:39
04. Visions - 2:59
05. Ceremony - 2:50
06. Destroyers - 3:49
07. Filth - 6:52
08. Everything - 2:45
09. Consumerism - 4:48
10. Enquirer - 4:23
11. If - 3:24
12. Freakshow - 4:49
13. Rest (outro) - 2:48


Line-up

Mark R. Gerster
Nick Repeta
Vincent Sparacino


Website

www.myspace.com/drowningsusan / www.facebook.com/pages/Drowning-Susan


Cover Picture




Rating

Sound: 8
Music: 7.5
Total: 8 / 10