• Bullz-Eye
• Movie Buffs
• Funny Pics
• Fantasy Football
• Fitness for Guys
• Celebrity Babes
• Celebrity Teaser

CD Review of Amused Confused & More Bad News by The Purrs

Reviewed by Michael Fortes

()

hough Amused Confused & More Bad News is, ironically, a less gloomy record than 2007’s irresistible and tragically unheard The Chemistry That Keeps Us Together, it still goes without saying that the Purrs sound a little too down for the times. Granted, there’s still plenty of reason to feel pessimistic in 2009, but the message of hope is still alive in most quarters. And yet the Purrs’ leader, Jima, is compelled to sing "here it comes again / a century of rain."

Perhaps it’s just the lingering effect of living in Seattle for so many years combined with operating in the shadows, so to speak. Regardless, few do mopey as brilliantly as the Purrs, whose approach is akin to hearing the Brian Jonestown Massacre with a songwriting force on the level of a Noel Gallagher to rein in the excess and tie the whole thing up into a neat little package that still leaves some comfy wiggle room.

The "less gloomy" tends to come in the form of detached resignation: "mostly I am in my own private hell / but mostly it’s OK," with Jason Milne’s rainy day guitar leads underpinning it all. It sounds like a lie, but we’ll take what we can get. "Feeling Fine," meanwhile, swaggers with cocky confidence and provides the album’s most positive moment.

The clinchers, however, surround "Feeling Fine" from both ends at the front of the album. Preceding it is the hard-hitting "Fear of Flying," a solid tour-anxiety rocker with an indelible chorus, while following it is "Stay Here With Me," which sports perhaps the most infectious riff yet to anchor a Purrs song. And with Jima’s comically blunt complaint about a girl who drank all his wine, took all his time, "and looked at me like I’m the one who ought to leave," it’s easily the album’s best track, and in a perfect world would be lighting up iPods everywhere.

The album runs out of steam by its 10th entry, "Good Times to Come," and slithers quietly away with a far-away voice layered over a slow, short, dreamy instrumental, "Jolly’s Return." And aside from the band’s first ever all-acoustic tune, "The Big Black Wall," the ground covered here is familiar and comfortable. But in light of the high points preceding this tepid ending, Amused Confused & More Bad News still manages to hang with the band’s two previous full-length albums like a newfound brother, which is hardly bad news at all.

You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook for content updates. Also, sign up for our email list for weekly updates and check us out on Google+ as well.