Oh beautiful slack noise! How we’ve missed your presence. A cacophony of noise threaded around sugary melodies, creating something that kicks you in the teeth while easing the palette, kind of like chilli flavoured chocolate.
The guitars screech in scrawls of feedback and the drums pound joyously across the 22 compact minutes on Joanna Gruesome‘s second album. The fact that some EP’s have longer running lengths is completely irrelevant when this slab of organised chaos clocks in such melodic trashed beauty in its microscopic running time.
Ok, so it’s not pure art at its best. It’s messy and sprawling. Disheveled and lazy. But good gracious it’s fun. That same element of joy that you feel as a kid, running around for no real apparent reason, but getting your kicks off it anyway. That is to say, the substance is perhaps lacking and this isn’t a record that’s going to alter your life, or likely even your musical tastes. But you’ll enjoy the ride while it’s there.
All the songs follow a simplistic and similar template, blending into a sour mash that creates an album with a great flow. The riffs shine, the melodies play off each other and the rough edges make it all the more endearing and earnest.
The little touches just make Peanut Butter such a fun and enjoyable listen. That abrupt stop at the end of ‘There’s No Function Stacey’, the near-plagiarism of Nirvana on ‘Crayon’. It’s those tiny details that become apparent on repeated listens and make the album a grower.
Peanut Butter is wide-eyed, slacker rock fun… and if it was anything else we’d be surely disappointed. In the time it takes to watch an episode of Family Guy you’ll emerge with a beaming smile, guaranteed.
