You have to admire Future Bible Heroes' sheer unabashedness. There's no
shame in their love of the synthesizer. There's no wink-wink-nudge-nudge
admission that their lyrics often fly off the kitsch scale into
embarrassment. And because of this lack of shame, they allow us jaded,
postmodern music fans to inhale this spun-sugar record that's too earnest
and well-done to be as campy as it seems.
On their second full-length album, pop-wonder Stephen Merrit (Magnetic
Fields, The 6ths) and Boston-based DJ Chris Ewen have added Claudia Gonson
(also Magnetic Fields) to their ranks as the sole singer. While Merrit's
bass monotone is missed, her crystalline voice shines here with Merrit's
alternately goofball and devastatingly romantic lyrics.
This music box of a record—that instead of being wound up is programmed by
a mad genius—takes synthpop and infuses it with a calliope of sounds to
create a deeply textured, yet light as a feather sound. It's more OMD than
Gary Numan with its oddly sweet, small-town America feel. "Doris
Daytheearthstoodstill," while competing for the most obnoxious-yet-clever
title ever, floats up bell-like from the ocean floor where Gonson holds
court as queen of bubbly champagne music. Her lilting voice makes lyrics
like "I'd rather put the make on a rattlesnake/than be losing your affection"
sound like the sweetest, most apple pie sentiment ever uttered.
These contradictory elements fuse perfectly throughout the record. "Smash
the Beauty Machine" rides a bizarrely peppy line between lounge and
soundtrack music to a '40s Disney film, all lilting ahh-ahhh-ahhhs and
finger snaps; yet the lyrics are full of social commentary. "Find an Open
Window" is the sweetest ode to suicide; but if you don't listen too closely,
you'll just ride it out as a bittersweet love song because it's that, too.
"I'm a Vampire" is near impossible to explain; it's silly and stupid and
fun. It's Miss Kittin minus the robotics. It's terribly wrong, but just what
the doctor ordered for recovering goths everywhere.
Future Bible Heroes is one of those bands loved by many, but relatively
unknown to most and it's a shame. Author Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, American Gods) wrote an ode to this record on his site; the band thanks Daniel
Handler (more widely known as Lemony Snicket) in the liner notes; Esquire
quotes lyrics from the opening song in their October issue. Perhaps this
time around, they'll find a larger audience. (Crossing fingers.)
Future Bible Heroes Eternal Youth
