A healthy dose of Shellac

Shellac- Excellent Italian Greyhound


Here we are, almost seven years after 1000 Hurts, with another Shellac record. Just when it seemed like it would never come out, it's arrived, and so all of us can stop our bitchin'. Greyhound is easily the best of Shellac's four studio albums, or at the very least on par with their first LP At Action Park.

The goofy, playful side of their live performances definitely shines through, particularly on album opener "The End of Radio," when guitarist/vocalist Steve Albini shouts "this microphone turns sound into electricity!" and "that drumroll...means we have a winner!" in the persona of the last DJ on an isolated planet. The imagery summoned in "Radio" is striking, provocative and immediate, with Bob Weston's repetitive, chunky, three-chord bassline acting as spine to the post-apocalyptic scenario. Weston also contributes vocals to two sharp, biting tracks, "Elephant" and "Boycott," both exercises in political polemic that seem out of place but also strangely welcome at the same time.

"Greyhound" offers great straight-up rockers like "Steady As She Goes" and album highlight "Be Prepared," a sort of awkward call-and-response anthem. What other band is going to shout lines like "I was born in Portland, Oregon!" "I was born with 20 bucks in my pocket!" or "I was born wearing spats and a dickey!" only to break down the song into a ridiculously catchy boogie?

The two instrumentals, "Kittypants" and the cataclysmic "Paco," (powered by Todd Trainer's thunderous drums) are a welcome change after the nonstop verbal torrent on the first half of the album. "Genuine Lulabelle" is another break in form, using various voice-overs midway through to help narrate the story of a woman of ill repute--certainly Shellac's weirdest song.

The real kicker is saved for last. "Spoke," a song the band initially recorded for a Peel session in the 90s, surfaces here in a slightly different, but still maniacal/nonsensical rocking form. Let's just hope we don't have to wait seven years until the next one...