Anhedoniac

Jarboe’s gone back to death & self-abnegation (after some dallience in industrial dance)- somewhat experimental, sparse, gothic w/off-key Southern voice. Witching-hour music. Best stuff she’s done since “Swans Related Project.” There’s a lot of material on here, some songs under 2 mins, others break 7.
Ps. The track label on the back of the CD is wrong- 3 is The Cage, 4 is Sinner, 1&16 are “I’m a Killer”- not sure about the rest- reviews below match the track numbers the CD player shows. Re-release of a ’98 cd, which we missed the 1st time around.

1.possbile FCC: “Shit”? a-capella , twisted show tune, some growled vox like Diamanda Galas-lite, wails in the 2nd half. A longish pause (two bars?) about 1:50 in is a false ending. This is an alternate version “I’m a Killer”
2.Mid-slow medaeval-sounding drums and pipe(?) music, witchy off-key vox. Weaker track.
3.FCC” “fuck” repeated over and over. detuned bass. Loop song
4.neo-folk, then indie industrial
5.Spoken gloom over tense dark noises, bass & warbles
6.spoken/chanted, loop fuzz bass, goes right into
7.devlish croaks & animalish noises in 1st half- nice Biblical reference in 2nd half
8.pretty vibraphone, sings to a ladykiller’s victim, dump that poseur
9.weird goth tale, no music per se, sounds and slurred speech, ends w/nature
10.heavy! growls “BURN” with hair, that’s about it
11.Swans-sounding guitar phrase repeats
12.inside-piano sounds, pretty vocal warbling, subtle male phrases
13.Organ, mid-slow yet upbeat ballad. Makes me think “Western.” Love song for good Swans days?
14.Nice rhythm loop, reserved. Title references PanSonic for good reason, it’s Mika Vaino & Ilpo Vaisanen!
15.starts w/menacing drone, then nice folk/cocteau twins-guitar. Sung vocals aren’t pretty enough for the musical accompaniment though. Maybe the dischord was what she was aiming for. Ends w/abstract sounds, buzz.
16.FCC: says “shit”, see lyric sheet. Nice dark ballad, piano, vocals sung with drama, builds to swirling noise and purifies to a buzzing cello tone.
17.fades in. Instrumental mix of “I’m a Killer”, more fuzz.