Artist: Lydia Lunch / Retrovirus
Title: Urge To Kill
Genre: Art-Rock
Release Date: 22nd May 2015
Label: Rustblade
Review Flash
Still polarising opinion, noise-queen, all-round antagonist-artist and icon LYDIA LUNCH launches a live-in-the-studio reworking of some of her, shall we say, “moments”, and chucks in a cover of SUICIDE’s ‘Frankie Teardrop’ for the hell of it. The resulting melee is abrasive, aggressive and completely at odds with everything, the familiar spit and snarl of the vocals busied along by stabs of angry guitars and furious percussion. Some songs hurtle by wonderfully, opener ‘Snakepit Breakdown’ for example, while SWANS-style dirge ‘Tied And Twist’ is an ordeal, even at 3 minutes. There’s an amateur feel too much of this that Lunch worshipers will no doubt claim is deliberate. Or “the point”. But try sitting through ‘Three Kings’ without wanting to kill something, or yourself.
Conclusion: Unlikely to win hearts and minds, but then she’s unlikely to care. So I suppose it’s best to leave this curious and largely unlistenable offering in the realm of her true fans, who will no doubt lap it up.
Rating: 4 / 10
