The New Sound

This guy knows not to say the word 'pussy'. The star of Geordie Greep's 'Holy, Holy' just spent two minutes taunting a woman about his sexual fame—how popular he is among the Japanese and French Guianas, how he's like a god to “jihadists” and “rebels” . “—when she stumbles over a wildly unpleasant pickup line. “I bet your pussy is sacred, too,” she says, cracking the word like it's a cocktail straw between her back molars. She doesn't want to say it, you can say, but he can't help himself, torn as he is between good manners and a crippling irritation that can only come from deep loneliness.

This tense “pussy” is its lever The New Soundthe debut solo record from the former black midi frontman. This is an album full of dudes overwhelmed by a misery they can't communicate, which forces them to say and do things they know they probably shouldn't. In its 62 minutes, men in bars, nightclubs and boardrooms almost seem like they're competing to see who can humiliate themselves the most. These men are not gigachads or hunting alphas, although most of them aspire to be both. They are, to a man, ridiculous. “I'd disembowel myself just to hold your hand,” declares one, while another, smitten by a sex worker with college aspirations, insists he's curious “to see what you think of Proust.” They're failures on their own terms—they rarely seem to successfully bed a woman, even when they try to pay for sex—which makes their failures of morality and good taste all the more glaring.

Depending on your appreciation of top-of-the-line workouts à la Frank Zappa and Mr. Bungle, it's either a deft artistic play or just delicious irony that these unobtrusive, easily hated characters are the focus of subtle music that often risks becoming overwhelming. annoying. As a satirist, Greep shares an absurdist humanity and love of classic songwriting with Randy Newman (though it's hard to imagine the latter singing a line like “You can cum more than 100 stallions”), but also leaves the two playing as secondary elements in a hectic, kilometer-a-minute style. Opposite The New Soundits characters chatter through a pub mix of choppy salsa, mid-century shows, smooth jazz, Isley Brothers guitar disco, big-budget samba, and a dozen other styles you could imagine characters in a Steely Dan song listening to (including of Steely Dan's music).