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The concept album. As a medium for anything other than cool Roger Dean cover art, it is a musical conceit at best misunderstood, at worst reviled. But if it's good enough for The Who, ELP, and Donna Summer, then why not New Wet Kojak? Fear not – there are no elves, mods, or prostitutes scurrying between the grooves of the New York quintet's fifth offering, This Is The Glamorous (Beggars Banquet). NWK are cooler than that.
"I’ve been obsessed with the concept of glamour, and what is glamorous, for a long fucking time," admits NWK main man Scott McCloud, who knows a thing or two about late nights and the importance of a good moisturizer. This Is The Glamorous, then, is NWK's eleven-song rumination on finding glamour in all things. "If you think about it, glamour is in everything," adds the singer/guitarist. "It's advertised to be glamorous, therefore it is."
"It's in the EFX, you select It's in your cigarette This is the glamorous It's in your shampoo Like it's in me, and its in you (And if ya haven't got it yet You might as well be dead It's in your head…)"
But just because the songs share a central theme doesn't mean that NWK remain rooted in one spot for the duration of this brisk but succinct disc. Au contraire, McCloud and his colleagues – bassist Johnny Temple (who also plays with McCloud in Girls Against Boys), saxophonist Charles Bennington, drummer Nick Pellicciotto, and guitarist/keyboard player/mad scientist Geoff Turner – examine their quarry from every point of view, like skeptics at a used car lot or dog show judges. "I wanted to delve into the topic from many, many angles," says McCloud, "through upbeat songs and down-and-dirty, slower vamps." The glamorous night melts into the glamorous hangover, and the beckoning call of the glamorous aspirin.
"If you can't say something nice, Shut up You're just jealous"
The adventure begins with "The World of Shampoo," an edgy blend of spidery guitars, nervous synths, and cocktail shaker percussion, over which McCloud – our tour guide on this trip through the world of Jordache and techno, tan lines and Corvettes – tics off a litany of toiletries, sundries, and other indulgences that would make American Psycho's Patrick Bateman quiver with delight. The tension builds with "Supermodel Citizen USA," a spin through a twilight disco, where the mood is a heady blend of determination and desperation, and even the simple construction of a rock song can unravel quickly. Sometimes, forty-eight pairs of sunglasses and all the new looks for the summer simply aren't enough to sustain one's soul "How ya holdin' up?" taunts McCloud in the shimmering "Bad Things," scrutinizing the cracks in the veneer.
"Nobody talks to me I'm not a party person"
To be sure, the patented NWK late-night vibe found on New Wet Kojak (1995), Nasty International (1997), and Do Things (2000), still permeates the quintet's latest, particularly on the jazzy "Glorified" and the pared down "Nothing You Can Say." Yet cuts like the new "Something Easy" also expands on the electro feel of 2001's No. 4 EP, which celebrated "the glory of the Roland 303," but used in a loose, off-the-cuff manner. The percolating "Death 2 the Pop World" flirts with the very thing it threatens to eliminate, while "Nothing You Can Say" delivers the sweetest dual guitar assault this side of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, and Turner renders the dissonant grande finale, "Reverse the Curse," into what McCloud refers to as "Near Metal Experience Kojak."
"The make-out king Cruises heavy metal night In the Jesus hairdo"
Ladies and gentlemen, This Is The Glamorous. And it has more in common with Suicide's 1980 nail-biter "Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne" than anything Sheila E. ever sang about. After all, the difference between glamour and squalor is just a couple letters.
"I’ve been obsessed with the concept of glamour, and what is glamorous, for a long fucking time," admits NWK main man Scott McCloud, who knows a thing or two about late nights and the importance of a good moisturizer. This Is The Glamorous, then, is NWK's eleven-song rumination on finding glamour in all things. "If you think about it, glamour is in everything," adds the singer/guitarist. "It's advertised to be glamorous, therefore it is."
"It's in the EFX, you select It's in your cigarette This is the glamorous It's in your shampoo Like it's in me, and its in you (And if ya haven't got it yet You might as well be dead It's in your head…)"
But just because the songs share a central theme doesn't mean that NWK remain rooted in one spot for the duration of this brisk but succinct disc. Au contraire, McCloud and his colleagues – bassist Johnny Temple (who also plays with McCloud in Girls Against Boys), saxophonist Charles Bennington, drummer Nick Pellicciotto, and guitarist/keyboard player/mad scientist Geoff Turner – examine their quarry from every point of view, like skeptics at a used car lot or dog show judges. "I wanted to delve into the topic from many, many angles," says McCloud, "through upbeat songs and down-and-dirty, slower vamps." The glamorous night melts into the glamorous hangover, and the beckoning call of the glamorous aspirin.
"If you can't say something nice, Shut up You're just jealous"
The adventure begins with "The World of Shampoo," an edgy blend of spidery guitars, nervous synths, and cocktail shaker percussion, over which McCloud – our tour guide on this trip through the world of Jordache and techno, tan lines and Corvettes – tics off a litany of toiletries, sundries, and other indulgences that would make American Psycho's Patrick Bateman quiver with delight. The tension builds with "Supermodel Citizen USA," a spin through a twilight disco, where the mood is a heady blend of determination and desperation, and even the simple construction of a rock song can unravel quickly. Sometimes, forty-eight pairs of sunglasses and all the new looks for the summer simply aren't enough to sustain one's soul "How ya holdin' up?" taunts McCloud in the shimmering "Bad Things," scrutinizing the cracks in the veneer.
"Nobody talks to me I'm not a party person"
To be sure, the patented NWK late-night vibe found on New Wet Kojak (1995), Nasty International (1997), and Do Things (2000), still permeates the quintet's latest, particularly on the jazzy "Glorified" and the pared down "Nothing You Can Say." Yet cuts like the new "Something Easy" also expands on the electro feel of 2001's No. 4 EP, which celebrated "the glory of the Roland 303," but used in a loose, off-the-cuff manner. The percolating "Death 2 the Pop World" flirts with the very thing it threatens to eliminate, while "Nothing You Can Say" delivers the sweetest dual guitar assault this side of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, and Turner renders the dissonant grande finale, "Reverse the Curse," into what McCloud refers to as "Near Metal Experience Kojak."
"The make-out king Cruises heavy metal night In the Jesus hairdo"
Ladies and gentlemen, This Is The Glamorous. And it has more in common with Suicide's 1980 nail-biter "Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne" than anything Sheila E. ever sang about. After all, the difference between glamour and squalor is just a couple letters.