CD Reviews

Black Bananas | Rad Times Xpress IV

Drag City (2012)

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | March 6, 2012

3.5 Stars

It's a rare thing when you listen to a record and can actually hear drugs spewing from the speakers, but such is the gift of Rad Times Xpress IV, the latest from Jennifer Herrema, the exRoyal Trux chanteuse now doing business as Black Bananas. "But what do drugs sound like?" you ask. On Rad Times, they sound like '80s DC go-go funk, laconic riff-rock, and '70s fuzz-funk, smashed to pieces and recongealed with glops of Auto-Tune and laser-beam sound effects. Each song originates in a recognizable genre, only to open up the portal, mid-tune, to a sonic whirlpool where time and reality are rendered meaningless. No matter whether it's the clubby stomp of "Do It," the hard thump of "My House," or the laid-back-Stones-ballad vibe of "Acid Song," Herrema and Co. inevitably drive the car into the quicksand mid-tune in a way that is, to these ears, completely mesmerizing. Unsympathetic listeners might perceive Black Bananas' music as an overcooked mess, but look: sometimes you want a fancy meal, and sometimes you just want hot, goopy nachos. Rad Times is a towering paean to a time that never was, when too much was never enough, and a three-minute song could gloriously last forever.

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