REACHING QUIET
In The Shadow of The Living Room (Mush)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry

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Are Jad and David Fair finally going hip-hop? Each of them shaking and dribbling like a clammy David Byrne, and equipped with a dented, dependable SP-1200.

These songs were less awkward than recent endeavors by other Anglo-American lads intent on making this music their own, but it's just as funk-free as anything Anticon have ever done. Is this comparable at all to what the Talking Heads accomplished with their own influences (constructing sound from the detritus of George Clinton)?

I like "nerd-hop," and I love Talking Heads, so I can say that! I also love They Might Be Giants, but don't tell chief architects Why? or Odd Nosdam that I hear splinters of that also.

There were many sections of In The Shadow of The Living Room that got replayed by me in various settings. I spent quite a lot of time with this album, and even played parts of it for my parents. Case in point: 21 seconds into Indecent Proposal with the vocals sk-ski-skip-skipping over the piano.

Mom: "That shit's ill, kid."

Keith (Stepdad): "Bugged. I like it."

What more do I have to-to-to-to-to tell you?

GRADE: A.

© 2002 - Jason Thornberry