ROBYN HITCHCOCK AND THE VENUS 3
Ole! Tarantula
Yep Roc
· It’s not that weird. Really.
Yes, there is a spider disguised as a hand on the cover, and there are mysterious song titles like "Red Locust Frenzy," and lyrical references to ancient Central Asian military leaders (walking around Seattle, no less), and there’s a song written from the viewpoint of the late New York Doll Arthur Kane that’s, well, slightly creepy. But once you get past the surface appearances, Ole! Tarantula is more simple human stream-of-consciousness than it is altered consciousness.
Over music created by three of The Minus 5 – a sound by turns jangly, hypnotic, gentle, and rockin’ – Hitchcock writes with an emotional honesty (tempered with English restraint) that transcends the songs’ unusual trappings. The semi-opaque love songs, of which there are several, could nevertheless have been pop hits in a more aurally open time. The anti-war-on-terror song "The Authority Box" is a chugging commentary on living in a society of fear. And "N.Y. Doll," because of its "first person" point of view, is uniquely bittersweet.
And if you don’t like spiders, just close your eyes when you listen.
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