The following is the first review of the new Innocent Cabbage album, What Are You Doing? (July 2008, Pith005), taken from the Pith Records website. We're pretty pumped about it :)
That's right. It's a review of the Cabbage. On the Pith Records site. Dick.
Where do I begin?
I'll start by saying this is the band's grandest project to date; the sound production is so far above their previous releases I'd have thought they were touring Scandinavia by now. I recall Will once saying about some songs on "Pre-MetroGnome" that "if you could hear what I hear in my head, it sounds massive!" Well, the latest album I think does just that - it takes us inside the heads of three disturbed cabbages - and the world looks strikingly different from this perspective.
Exploring the album, I am floored at the synergy bonuses being rocked between the artwork, lyrics and music. At times light and full of energy, at times deeply disturbing, there's a sense that "it's all connected somehow, you just have to believe." The moods might become apparent if you stick it in your vehicular transport and go for a drive around Melbourne …
"Victims of a Drunken Slurring" is perhaps the best example of what I mean by this. Do not play while on acid.
I really like the vocal balance on this album - all three voices lending different tonalities and extremes to a song's mood. There's a sense of dynamics with each aural movement, but it's not up-and-down dynamics, it's side to side and all around, as though their vocals are just corks tossed on an ocean of noise, puncutated with flotsam of non-sequiturs.
While given to frequent bouts of dissonance and other aural expletives, there are some truly gorgeous moments on this album; soaring choruses and infectious grooves abound and may catch you off guard. The sense of humor that has characterized much of IC's music is still very much there, though I daresay it has reached a kind of maturity, regardless of the content. (If you don't like dicks, you may not like this album.) "The Wife (Naked&Grateful)" is a very black humorous look at marriage, although "Punch Buggy Red" might be a litle too intense for people with sensitivities.
For all the twists and turns, the musicianship of all three players is actually quite remarkable. Vastly more in touch with their abilities than was evident in previous releases, the Cabbage have achieved a relaxed, professional ease with their style, which for most other musicians is just far too erratic to contemplate. Indeed, IC's closest followers still admit to some confusion every now and again, but it's never a negative thing - it's kind of like puzzles; the fun is in piecing them together.
Opening with foottappers like "Invincible" "Happy Pants" and "Number One" the album moves in fits and starts to some very twisted places, and by the end you might be wondering at the images randomly generating in your mind - naked and grateful wives, creepy stepfathers, touching peenies, and lurking sexual predators. On reflection, their point of view is not untrue, but simply a received image being reflected back at the world, full of outrage, insanity, horror, and that bubbling, confused emotion that builds and builds until it spills out into the inevitable final question to the world at large - "What are you doing!?"
This is their finest work. Be Prepared.
Written by Melbourne writer Lance, myspace him at: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=22256576