Saying To All Trains , their sixth studio album, again in March, Shellac issued some accompanying notes. “This report can have no formal promotion,” the band acknowledged. “There can be no ads, no press or radio promotion, no e-promotion, no promotional or overview copies, no promotional gimmick objects, and in any other case no free lunch.”
You’ll be able to virtually hear Steve Albini laughing dryly to himself as he typed these phrases.
Shockingly, after a ten 12 months watch for a brand new album from the revered Chicago noise-rock trio, To All Trains pulls into the station simply 10 days after the dying, aged 61, of their iconoclastic vocalist/guitarist, a person who did as a lot as anybody to carve out a set of unyielding, uncompromising ethical ideas for DIY underground rock, and greater than most to really reside by such tenets. Essentially the most bittersweet listening expertise of the 12 months cuts near the bone at occasions. On the grinding, sometimes unsentimental I Do not Worry Hell , the final track on the album, and fairly probably the final track we’ll ever hear Albini sing, he drawls “And when that is over, I am going to leap in my grave just like the arms of a lover “, then follows up with the gleeful exultation, “If there is a heaven, I hope they’re having enjoyable, ‘cos if there is a hell I am gonna know everybody! ”
It is ridiculous, after all, to impart any sort of posthumous resonance to lyrics written years earlier than final week’s tragic information, so let’s follow chilly, laborious information. Recorded “over a bunch of lengthy weekends in November 2017; October 2019; September 2021; and March 2022”, the follow-up to 2014’s Dude Unimaginable Scrappers , these three fastidious studio nerds sound like they only wish to reduce unfastened and boogie like ZZ High circa Tres Hombres .
There are moments of pure silliness right here – “You’re kicking ass on the track… Excessive 5! ” Albini and Weston sing in tandem on Lady From Exterior, extra Borat than Nietzsche – and moments of grave, tar-black reportage, not least on Wednesday , which concludes with the traces, “So, bear in mind him, hale and robust, would by no means run from a battle, and never the unhappy factor that blew out his brains within the kitchen, Wednesday evening .” The perky, jerkingly-groovy Scabby The Rat is a heart-warming love letter to a king-sized inflatable rodent image of commerce union resistance in Chicago and past, whereas the virtually tender How I Wrote How I Wrote Elastic Man (cock & bull) is – we presume – named in indirect tribute to one other nice post-punk contrarian, Mark E. Smith, referencing because it does The Fall’s How I Wrote How I Wrote Elastic Man, however with added er, cock and bull. As one may count on, there aren’t any straightforward rides right here, zero pandering, solely endlessly electrifying jolts of serrated, singular noise, with riffs and beats that slot collectively like some nice clanking rusting-but-trusted industrial equipment. It is in all probability greatest to not know precisely what is going on by way of Albini’s head at occasions – “Nowadays are all canine, distracted by their assholes, the scent of rotting carcasses warmed by the solar ” anybody? – however as ever, Shellac are by no means lower than compelling all through, by no means lower than a bleakly stunning good time.
“Breaking apart is an concept that’s occurred to far too few bands. Generally the flawed ones,” Albini wrote in posthumous tribute to his first notable band, Massive Black. Shellac, sadly, have had their dissolution pressured upon them by merciless destiny, however the trio depart behind an unimpeachable legacy, and no weak moments in any way. Relaxation straightforward Skinny White Dick, you taught us properly, shot straight, and really hardly ever missed. Exeunt.
