The mood begins to shift and the sun begins to set with "Close Call." The gospel hope of "Silver Lining" has been replaced by danger and impending gloom in the form of plinking guitars that echo Disintegration-era Cure. Where Robert Smith delivered his gloom with a mope, Lewis' comes in the form of a knowing strut through the underworld where it's a "Funny thing about money for sex/ you might get rich but you die by it." The music has enough sheen and Lewis' voice is still pretty enough to shade listeners from the full effects of the present darkness in the lyrics.
Gospel shifts to gloom, gloom to sleaze with first single "The Moneymaker." It's a lousy choice as a single but it's going to be hotter than the flames of hell and sweatier than me after trying to tie my laces on an August morning when performed in concert. I can only imagine her Jenny-ness holding court on stage and stalking her audience; sleaze, sex, and frenzy in the air. Singles need big hooks and the dirty, sleaze-pop depravity of "The Moneymaker" doesn't have one. The song is crucial to the sonic portrait painted by Blacklight and should be great in concert, but it's not the type of song radio listeners embrace.
The album races to such a promising start but the momentum doesn't carry all the way through to the end. It's as if even the band get fatigued by the overpowering sense of creepiness and the sounds of disco by the time they get around to "The Angels Hung Around," probably the closest thing to a Rilo Kiley-sounding song on the album. The title track, the Blake Sennett-sung "Dreamworld," and the previously mentioned "Silver Lining," "Close Call," and "The Moneymaker" from the core of the record and are strong enough to overpower an occasional misstep. It's not always fun and it's not always good, but those best moments make Under the Blacklight indispensable.
Article comments
1 - Mat Brewster
Under the Blacklight could be a modernized, musical companion to Mark Twain's The Gilded Age
Did you seriously just make a literary reference? And all this time I thought you couldn't read.
Seriously though I got a copy of this on my iPod after Saleskis review, but haven't given it a good listen. After this I guess I'll have to push it to the front of things I need to give a go.
2 - DukeDeMondo
Sir DJ, brilliant review. I too was dissapointed by Moneymaker, but it makes sense within the context of the record, as you say. I adore the album, although i was initially dissapointed no end by the overwhelming poppiness of the whole shebang. but those songs are just glorious. it's been on pretty much constant rotation here over the past week. i saw a review in Uncut suggested it was Rilo Kiley's Parallel Lines. that makes sense to me. It's a pop record, and an astoundingly good one. just takes a while to get over the fact there ain't no Paint's Peeling or Better Son / Daughter or It's A Hit on there.