Review Summary: It's an album of dance and celebration in death's
insistent embrace.
This is the third release by the duo Big Sir consisting of Juan Alderete on bass (The Mars
Volta) and Lisa Papineau on vocals. Big Sir delivers dark and haunting atmospheres polarized
with instances of inebriatingly dancy grooves. Papineau performs her vocals emotionally and
its delivery is at times so fragile that there seems to be a struggle between the
instruments and her haunting, soft croons. The bass lines often form a felicitous
counterpoint to the vocals, effects, and accompaniment. They often seems to take the reins
and lead the frenetically aloof dance that this album performs. It is at times challenging
to fully apprehend the musical direction, yet in this case it seems a misguided attempt at
control. This album tears and sways and pushes what we expect of "good" music.
Papineau said in an interview:
"The fear and uncertainty that we all face in contemplation of death, and the varying ways
we all make peace with it is the basis of the album's overall concept. The hymn 'Amazing
Grace' speaks to the death of pride," Papineau says, "the death of believing yourself to be
omnipotent, and how joyful and sweet this humble giving-in can be. So, on our album, Death
is a ship, and her name is The Calico." It's an album of dance and celebration in death's
insistent embrace."
As much as the lyrical content and motifs deal with reflections on mortality and how nothing
lasts, the music provides the listener with the opportunity to submit to its obliqueness and
skewed quiddity. "Memento mori and be strange."
