The 2kDozen 500: #280 - Shrag, "Canines"

I've read a few blurbs about this saying that Shrag may contain the best working lyricist knocking about. But more gracefully put than that. Big words. Or maybe she uses small words. Do I really listen hard enough anyway?

It's not too long since I listened to my first Shrag album, and I got the whiff of gang culture (in a Grange Hill sense not South Central) and Riot Grrrl and shouty singing. That's three whiffs, isn't it? I like the smell anyhow. It smells like you can build stuff on it. A little like a less sly version of The Chap.

Opener "Tears Of A Landlord" winds up its windmill arms, building up the rock & roll shapes in a massive wind tunnel. Not what was expected. Space rock synth drifts. Punk funkier on "Show Us Your Canines", but I'm not sure what the title is about. (I've tried listening, but the Lympics keep putting me off.) (Actually, it's not just distractions; there's something that non sequits from one lyric to the next. Something slippery.)

"You're The Shout" is an interesting mix of laid-back rage ("I'd like to rip his heart in two") and positive thinking camaraderie ("I know you'll be just fine/'Cos we'll make our own time"). It's all about bodily bits and salty emotions. "Tendons In The Night" in fact. At the other end are the "synthetic" pleasures of "That's Static" that keep you worn and thin.

Something moving about in the townscape, but I can't lay my finger on its pulse. It's good.

Rating: Her Jazz out of The Chap