Fuck ME! Sympathy for the record reviewer more like. This is an appropriately titled horror, which seems to go on forever. Laconic, wanna-be iconic slacker cooler-than-thou indie sheesh kebabs. That's not to say that there's not some good ideas and effort put in here, early on we get some gusto, as on electric shock opener 'Ulcer Soul', a sucker for 'New Rose' tho it be, and 'Cons And Tricks'; the odd stab at Television taking their arty CBGB twisting scratches to the pop mart on 'Making Certain', 'What's Wrong Is Right', and 'Toy'. It's just that out front we get squawked at by a wire-cutting voiced Patti Smith auditioning for the part of Yoko Ono in the life of John Lennon. But where the audition scene is Yoko giving birth. Ever thought of that? No, I hadn't till just now, what a fucking terrible racket that'd be. See? It ruins possibly good moments like 'Sleep At Night'. Distinctive do I hear?

Yeah, sure, buddy, but it's fucking annoying. It's also an interminable, endless, tho' not nameless record as well. 20 songs is a good 15 or so too many, tho 'We Live On Your Street' pulls up and parks first time. Too often they just become unlistenable too, like on 'Shriek's collision of Captain Beefheart and Royal Trux. One or the other, please. If that. 'Walk Straight' is painful too, as is the possibly beguiling
Violent Femmes acoustic dribble 'Categories'. And there's a lot of the Trux in here without the deluxe factor, one minute woozy, warped opiated Carter Family transported to modern day on 'Blind Story', the other backporch OD croaks like 'Lock Me Out', then disco deathfunk seizures such as 'Horn Song'. It's a pretty impenetrable affair, which detracts from the inventiveness that's in there somewhere. But it's like
they get an idea then like a puppy drag it around the garden till it's unrecognisable and just drivel that you wanna put in the bin, or take to the second hand store, more sensibly. Could almost be a strange little sect, or backwoods family who've picked up guitars instead of chainsaws. Appropriately, when I took this out the CD player just now, I noticed the SFTRI banner - '16 Years Of Performance Anxiety Instability And Poor Judgement'. As old Ronnie Van Zandt said - 'You
sho' got that right'.

PS - Reading this back it seems a very disjointed, topsy-turvy and generally all over the place. I wrote it while playing the record. Go figure.
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-Stu Gibson