David Cronenburg’s Wife – Hypnagogues

David Cronenburg's Wife

As you would expect of a band who use the identity of another (the real David Cronenburg’s wife is cinematographer Carolyn Zeifman), David Cronenburg’s Wife are a little bit schizophrenic donning many masks throughout Hypnagogues. They appear to make sport of taking on other sounds, making off with other bands’ influences and turning it to their own wicked musical ends.

From the off, the mood is light-hearted. ’Sweden’ namechecks Annabel Croft, delivered in a deadpan spoken word that calls to mind The Fall, Half Man Half Biscuit and Art Brut, and a driving constant dirge of guitar takes over focus until the end.

On ‘Keep Doing What You Do’, singer Tom Mayne’s vocal is almost twangy, and the lyric is shot through with a cruelty which doesn’t seem uncommon in DCW’s work – “First time I saw you, honey, I was not impressed” – offering a woman the sort of disdain that Dylan was so good at expressing.

If you can get past the self-consciously referential title, ‘The Lou Reed Song’ delivers a vocal that is so close to Lou Reed in tone if not accent, so unlike the singing voice on the other songs.

From the ‘Jean Genie’-swagger of ‘Fight Song’ to ‘In the Limo’ – a ‘Fairytale Of New York’-instructed folk song, complete with fiddle and Shane MacGowan slur – there is a sea change, a step back from the naughty-naughty humour of the first few songs.

‘You Should Have Closed The Curtain’ peels away from its organ intro to sink into a slow subsidence, and even the increase in tempo on the Ikara Colt-style ‘Body To Sleep With’ can’t disguise the more serious feel.

Hypnagogues is an album of two halves. The first, a giddy, playful and interesting world reflected in a ‘House of Fun’ mirror – warped and painful, yes, but funny above all things. The second half is a morose study of pain and life’s grey monotony, capped off with the elegiac ‘Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace’ fading into church bells.

There’s a lot of strangeness about David Cronenburg’s Wife, and no overriding personality. But the weirdness they introduce into music is about as challenging as the great man himself and his work. Who knows if the mask is the strangeness, or if it’s hiding something much more questionable?

No related posts.