Imagine what would happen if Courtney Love and the Beach Boys conceived a sassy, surf rock lovechild.
Former Portland resident (and current New Yorker) Marianne Pillsbury’s new album “The Wrong Marianne” is a no holds barred, raunchy lyric bitchfest, complete with alternative pop choruses, 50’s guitar rock solos and enough estrogen to make Ani DiFranco turn red in the face.
While this may seem like an interesting combination at first, the album just doesn’t make it work, due to the music’s uninteresting and frankly annoying qualities.
The musical style of Pillsbury’s new album is not what I would call unique. The music is average chick rock fare, but more “The Donnas” than “Josie and the Pussycats.” It features Pillsbury on lead guitar with a handful of backup musicians.
One problem I have with the music on this album is that every time Pillsbury breaks into a guitar solo, it has the same “surf’s up” quality to it, evoking more of Dick Dale’s “Miserlou” memories than of Keith Richards in “Brown Sugar”. Other than this flaw, the music on the album is performed adequately, but nothing to break out the air guitar for.
What really grabs the listener during “The Wrong Marianne” is Pillsbury’s less than polite lyrical style, which is a unique thing to strive for. On the other hand, many of her lyrics are just lame. And in the modern rock trend toward monotonous, pointless lyrics, Pillsbury doesn’t really bring anything new to the table.
Not only are Pillsbury’s lyrics more of the same everyday masturbation that is modern rock, but her style tends to drift in a direction even more annoying and repetitive. The choruses are repeated too much, and Pillsbury’s singing style is unemotional and lacks variation.
Then again, maybe that’s the point. “The Wrong Marianne” seems to stray from the norms of popular music by defying some of the many rules of producing profitable music. In fact, the whole album seems to be a defiant “Up Yours!” to music corporations, as well as the unfortunate souls who listen to their products.
While some bands include stickers or business cards with their press releases when they send albums to be reviewed, Pillsbury instead sent a pack of tissues to emphasize her single, “Boo Hoo.” This is an attention-grabbing promotional tool, but I hope Pillsbury’s next album is better than this one. Until then I’ll be using the tissues to wipe the tears from my eyes as I thank God I don’t have to listen to this album anymore.
In short, Marianne Pillsbury’s new album “The Wrong Marianne” is repetitive and just plain boring, and therefore I can’t recommend it to anyone other than hardcore fans of garage pop or chick rock music. The quality of the backup band is good, but the generally annoying lyrics and average, uninspired music will turn off most listeners.
Jon Blood can be contacted at [email protected]