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Rating: "The Deep End" or that particular feeling of losing control, that sensation similar to falling, to sinking and ripping apart (deep down).
The Norwegian band Madrugada has arrived at their fourth album, recorded in Los Angeles with producer Gorge Drakoulias (known for Screaming Trees, Black Crowes, and Primal Scream) and with Dave Bianco (U2, Mick Jagger) at the mixer.
Having at their disposal a remarkable array of instruments (a large number of guitars and basses as well as vintage amplifiers from the fifties), the band indulged in the search for new songs that would provide a worthy follow-up to the good but controversial "Grit" from 2002. And so it has been.
The result is this "The Deep End," a compact album with a decadent and anguished charm. Predominant are electric and energetic tracks with dark atmospheres well delineated by a deep bass "that you can feel" and a trapped and nervous drumming, while the guitars drag and temper and perpetuate the inquietudes and torments of Sivert Høyem's evocative and baritone singing.
The album opens with the exuberant "The Kids Are On A High Street," the first single, which is based on a beautiful scorching and passionate guitar riff (showing reminiscences of R.E.M. and Bruce Springsteen) where Høyem's deep and inspired singing immediately takes center stage.
With "On Your Side," Madrugada immediately trample on the faint sunlight: it swerves abruptly towards increasingly gloomy and dark, almost industrial, tones where the rhythm section really shines with Frode Jacobsen's prominent bass.
A slide ala The Edge to unsettle and afflict, and a crooner Høyem reminiscent of Scott Walker, sustain "Hold On To You," pure late-night rock: music for a purgatory of tormented souls and perfect for the cinema of David Lynch. Echoes of the Tindersticks in a fire smoldering beneath the ashes.
"Stories From The Streets" has an approach that owes much to flamenco, a Spanish and gypsy feel pervading the entire track, supported by a desert and obsessive guitar, culminating in an explosive orgiastic ending.
One of the cornerstone tracks of "The Deep End" is surely "Running Out Of Time," a dark blues over six minutes long propelled by a pounding guitar, with Høyem reminiscent of the dark and filtered late Mark Lanegan of Methamphetamine Blues.
Another gem is "The Lost Gospel," a poignant love ballad disguised in country-gospel attire, while the subsequent "Elektro Vacuum" is another energetic track that vents a fiery stream of consciousness and boasts a catchy chorus that easily lodges in the memory.
Drakoulias' work stands out splendidly in "Subterranean Sublight," where guitarist Robert Burås' dirty "strumming" slides into more prominent realms, suitable for bold and elegant souls, embracing a groove that seems to come directly from the Stone Roses' Manchester.
"Hard To Come Back" contains references to alcohol and drug abuse, but it is the obsessive guitars and demonic drumming that characterize the track in its impetuous advance.
Echoes of the most impetuous and vehement Nick Cave, along with the sick sounds of Joy Division and the Bad Seeds, are found instead in "Ramona." The track has a delirious, convulsive, and violent procession almost like tormented souls in the afterlife.
Souls that do not relent even in the subsequent "Slow Builder" but wear a different skin: wild souls partaking in a night bacchanal for a psychedelic ballad, a blues-rock that manages to fuse the spirit of Robert Johnson and Janis Joplin.
"Sail Away" is a long, dreamy ballad with a moog ride in the background that would like to bring back rays of light but only manages to defer the intention ("I just want to sail away/From it all/Freedom is impossible/This I know") and remains suspended.
Closing the album are the usual bonus tracks. Of these, "Life In The City" is an honest and energetic rock song that neither adds nor subtracts from the album; the last song included stands out: "I'm In Love," a sort of claustrophobic jam in which Høyem's heavily filtered singing crashes against industrial walls and uncontrolled Doors-like sounds.
A very solid album with many different insights; this is "The Deep End." Certainly, it lacks the unexpected wonder and mystery of that Industrial Silence, the debut album from a few years ago, but this new one does not disappoint; the result is more than worthy and gives us a band in great shape for melody and interpretative impact. A band that can afford to embrace diversions and excursions without softening their raw and restless sound by even a millimeter.
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