No matter how much noise (read: promotional salesmanship) gets generated behind the making f a new album by a controversial artist, eventually one has to ask is that album justifies the hype which surrounds it. Is it really possible that this newest release is the great white hope and creative salvation for both the artist who made it and the music industry too? Is it the sort of record which could unify the disparate communities and cults of personality littered throughout the rock diaspora?
After the media build-up which surrounded Amanda Palmer's newest effort, Theatre Is Evil (yes, the singer petitioned fans to help fund the making of the record by setting up a Kickstarter account – which ultimately generated $1, 192, 793 to the singer's cause), the question of “Was it all worth it?” seems just that much more valid – so why not ask can those who generously contributed to the capitol generation efforts which ultimately yielded Theatre Is Evil say that they got what they paid for?
Given the dramatic departure in form and style represented by the fifteen tracks which comprise Theatre Is Evil as well as the “force of nature”-sized sounds which drive it, the only possible answer to that question is a resounding “Yes.”
The moment “Smile” explodes out to open the proceedings of Theatre Is Evil, listeners will be stunned where they stand – shocked into mute observation – by the sheer magnitude of the sound they're hit with. There, listeners are confronted by a solid, thick and positively enormous wall of sound, on the nose of which Palmer has strapped herself – presumably to give this phenom a human face as it rolls right over/through those who encounter it. To suit the sound too, the subject matter is direct and blunt as Palmer indicts myriad media outlets and their tedious propensity to want to catch everything on film (“pictures or it didn't happen”) and – to at least the smallest extent – those who help to keep the media dogs hungry: the public who buys it all. With that thematic trickle-down in hand as well as the blunt-force assault of The Grand Theft Orchestra in mind, listeners will find themselves hit so hard that they'll be twitterpated; the song and its delivery may not be the single most welcoming invitation, but there is a romance in the bombast that is impossible to deny.
Immediately after “Smile” knocks the scope of the possibilities for Theatre Is Evil to about the widest point it can, “The Killing Type” swoops in behind it to tease listeners a bit by contracting the sound again and knocking all the bodacious sonics its predecessor featured out completely, and then letting them creep back into the mix by degrees. Because of that methodology, Palmer is afforded the luxury of being able to nudge in bits of sound which tie the different sides of her career together and gently renovates it to make it that much larger and more ambitious. Songs like “Do It With A Rock Star,” “Wank It Back,” “Trout Heart Replica,” “The Bad Song” and “Olly Olly Oxen Free” (to name only a few) all find the singer gleefully tipping sacred cows as she conducts a mammoth and bombastic sound which features elements of rock, new wave, delicate, almost folky charm and vintage, three-penny burlesque inflated to fantastic, unbelievable sizes. It's awe-inspiring to hear it in action.
Such glowing work absolutely deserves all the attention it's afforded, but it also inspires the question of what Amanda Palmer is to do for her next trick. With Theatre Is Evil, the singer and her Grand Theft Orchestra have proven that big things are possible without big entities (like major record labels) behind them; this record proves that an indie record doesn't need to sound homemade and can indeed be worth a million dollars if people believe in it. That's a grand success; Amanda Palmer has challenged and defeated convention, but the question now is whether she has the creative fuel to follow it. What comes next is anyone's guess – but Amanda Palmer will have everyone's attention when she decides to follow up with Theatre Is Evil, and she most definitely deserves it.
Artist:
www.amandapalmer.net/
www.myspace.com/afp
www.facebook.com/amandapalmer
www.twitter.com/amandapalmer
Download:
Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra – The Killing Type EP (Noisetrade)
Album:
Theatre Is Evil is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
