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Rating:
I categorically dissociate myself from the unformed mass of critics who deem the album in question mediocre. Certainly this third LP by Babes in Toyland sounds less original than the previous "Fontanelle", but it is a very arduous task to surpass what, in my opinion, can be considered the masterpiece of foxcore.
"Nemesisters" offers excellent melodic cues, starting from the opener "Hello", where the voice of the legendary Kat Bjelland becomes soft in the verses and then "moderately" rises above it all, culminating in a splendid whispered bridge that suddenly accelerates the track, collapsing onto a sorrowful instrumental interlude. The second track, "Oh Yeah!", is no less. It opens with the highly effective drumming by Lori Barbero (whose so-called "tribalisms" will be revisited by Sleater-Kinney in their later works) which leads to the general grunge atmosphere that permeates the piece. Next is "Drivin'", composed and sung by Barbero herself. This track is essentially a loop, as Barbero repeats only two phrases throughout its entirety, which, when read with particular attention, prove to be quite eloquent. In "Sweet '69" Kat Bjelland resumes her unique way of screaming and asserting herself with a nervous and original guitar style, in the, so to speak, more commercial episode of the album.
After the despair of "Surd" and the enchanting atmospheres of "22", comes the listening of "Ariel", more akin in sound to "Fontanelle" than to "Nemesisters". The tragic atmospheres, Bjelland's psychopathic screams, Barbero's melancholy backing vocals, and a "ruffled" bass line make it the best moment of the album. The lyrics of "Ariel" are rather incomprehensible, like most of Kat Bjelland's lyrics, dictated by her distorted psychological imagery. If in previous works the lyrics had a clearly stated main objective (the figure of the mother, which is the key to understanding the leader's inner frustrations), they now appear confused and disjointed.
Worthy of mention is the decent vocal performance by bassist Maureen Herman ("Killer On The Road"), still light years away from Kat Bjelland's talent, but also from the more modest Barbero, from whom another composition can be appreciated, "Middle Man", a blues-punk that will be slavishly copied by 7 Year Bitch in their "Deep In My Heart". In fact, the bassist of 7 Year Bitch evidently plays according to Maureen Herman's paradigm (listen to "Gato Negro", an album by the aforementioned 7 Year Bitch, to believe). Therefore, "Middle Man" should be counted among the peaks of the babesintoylandian production, despite being a rather underrated track.
Bjelland finally delivers two vocal masterpieces, "Memory" and "S.F.W.", which once again bring "Fontanelle" to mind, for the vocal style indeed, for the angry atmospheres and a vague metal influence found in them. However, the final trio of covers disappoints. Absolutely avoidable are "All By Myself" and "Deep Song", sung a cappella by Barbero. However, the lo-fi version of "We Are Family" deserves at least minimal consideration. Probably performed as a joke, it turns out to be pleasant and almost worthily closes the album.
With "Nemesisters" Babes in Toyland consistently refined their art and more precisely the aspect of the lyrics, rather "clean": in fact, only a couple of "shits" appear and the phrase "so fucking what", which should have been the real title of "S.F.W." but apparently the Babes preferred the acronym. Apart from this sort of self-censorship, many aspects of "Nemesisters" should be praised, especially the experimental approaches combined with the more pronounced blues insights compared to their early works.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Hello (04:45)
I know somewhere we could go
Better than you could ever know
Hello.
Go shove yourself
I know someone we could be
Out in disguys a tree
Hello---
Go shove yourself goal I know
You and me.
I am the worst one yet
I am delicious sweat
Hello.
Go shove yourself show
We care lot about a big situation
When we were young.
02 Oh Yeah! (03:16)
Widowspeek but do not see the seer
Forest trees souled an enemy comes through
Dafeel compete with me yr absolete
Oh yeah inliar or what
You can't map reality the light is pure green
Energy I'm so alive got nine fool eyes
I see through violet's thin disguise
Oh yeah enlightya or what
The whole world's out in front of me all
Sugar coated phallusy I will not follow
Stupid sheep I will not bow I will not peep
Oh yeah elijah or what
Kellie black I cought yr act you can not
Get away with that yr caustic bullshit
Second sight yr second's up yr short
On sight
Oh yeah enlieya or what
05 Surd (04:43)
I follow my sight sound
You mind seeing eye sound
I recovered rebound
Your silence is unsound
I carried your weight around
You leave me to fly down
I shine inside surd sound
Time lives inside rewound
(I can't be what you need
I can see into eternity)
I dove so to see down
I followed my sight sound
Your silence is unsound
I can't be what you need
All of me
It's all inside of me
06 22 (03:15)
Fama tunes into agasaya
Aura like amberella
Ama is my govinda
All in time (all in mine)
All is mine (all is time)
Fachea anima interstellar
Hidden in logorrhoea
She is an amatia
All in time
All is time
All in mine
Fama turns into agasaya
Elijah electra
I live to enlight ya
All in time
07 Ariel (04:24)
Live somewhere in between of what
I've meant to be
Pick the bones clean of angelicanteen meat
Carnivaluate the short and tallerate the weak
Stuck 6 feet sheep yr older than you look
Cracked eyes black as soot
Ariel ariella isadore is a door
Isador able to close the sky and holes
In your eyes when you rise when you feel the
Velvet skies you rise
Manifestering stations ailing incarnations
A test of the broadcast emergency at last
Ariel ariella isadore is a door
Isador able to close the sky and holes
In your eyes when you rise when you feel the
Velvet skies you rise
Till you rise I fill you skies
Till you rise I field yr skies
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