Laying Throwing Muses to rest and taking a break from her solo projects, Kristin Hersh reappears in the guise of 50 Foot Wave, with Muses bassist Bernard Georges and new drummer Dan Ahlers. The name change seems moot as it doesn’t give Kristin any more creative license than she had previously, when she could cough into a microphone and her cult following would faint at its genius. But from the evidence of last year’s self-titled shortie and this, the band’s first full-length debut, the new ensemble may well mark a shift in approach.
To lay it straight, the woman has turned goddamn brutal. Throughout her 22 years of musical activity, Kristin Hersh was the epitome of a kooky creative. This was the case even in her most commercial moments, like the haunting ‘Your Ghost’ which featured fellow Georgian Michael Stipe of REM. So although it’s a genius opener, the dirty rock’n’roll of ‘Long Painting’ has all the impact of being kicked in the nuts by a nun. I can imagine. And when on ‘El Dorado’ she growls ‘Could you leave us alone for just a minute’, it seems positively rude – and life-threatening – to continue listening.
It would be justifiable to pass this off, because there’s some truth that if you’ve heard one Throwing Muses spin-off you’ve heard em all. But just be warned that with her current mental state, she may just pay you a visit when you least expect…