Bitter River is the most bipolar release of 2007, hands down. Members of Pygmy Lush were once in groups such as Pg. 99, City of Caterpillar, Majority Rule, and Hissing Choir just to name a few. Now, they've found themselves writing an album that changes drastically over the course of fourteen songs (two songs were added to the CD release, making the grand total sixteen). Pygmy Lush undergoes metamorphosis with each track, startling listeners and rattling the foundations of genre.
"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man," wrote Samuel Johnson, an eighteenth century essayist. Hunter S. Thompson popularized this quote with his novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The first thing you hear on Bitter River are these words followed by someone striking a match. This song, entitled "Nonsensical Tremor," begins and ends in a matter of thirty seconds. The musical part of the track sounds like a brief encounter with Pg. 99; however, when the song stops, transformation begins.
The next exposure to Pygmy Lush is "Hurt Everything," a slow acoustic song. There's no transition between "Nonsensical Tremor and "Hurt Everything," so the latter track sounds extremely tame compared to the former. The lyrics, however, are not in the least bit meek:
I've hurt everything / good that I've known / Each soul, every bone / Nice old cars, sweet tough dogs / Green trees, loving homes/ I killed Christ for fun, JFK for pay / When the devils had their chance / They looked the other way.
The following song, "Universal Order at 0 mph," is another take on acoustic music with soothing vocals and tambourine. But, right after that "Slave to a Teenager" comes on and seems to signal an end to the quieter side of Pygmy Lush. This is not the case at all. The songs continue to switch off, loud-and-distorted to quiet-and-clean. "Big Black River," a soft one, precedes "Send Bombs," a slower, heavy song (one of the longest songs on the album) with beautiful cacophony at the end.
"Foul Mouth Mother" sounds like gloomy surf rock at first, but transforms into a Daughters-esque concoction of feedback, yelling and screeching guitar. It's just over two minutes in length, but one hell of a song. "Red Room Blues," on the other hand, is sung in whispers and features light drumming and an instrument that sounds like bells. This is definitely one of the best "quieter" songs on Bitter River.
Two of the songs on the CD are renditions of "Hurt Everything" - upbeat with some type of horn and slide guitar - and "Send Bombs," slowed down even more and played acoustically. The two "extra" songs on the Bitter River CD release are "September Song," a twenty-five minute ambient track that lulls like Brian Eno's atmospheric arrangements, and "Throw the Jockey," a folky tune.
Bitter River offers more than any one listener is willing to take. The album takes time to grow on you, because it represents so many different styles. The seasoned musicians of Pygmy Lush have proven that having multiple personalities can be an extremely enjoyable quality.
