Blonde Redhead – Misery is a Butterfly

Bonde Redhead Spreads its Wings

At the beginning of “Elephant Woman,” the opening track from Misery is a Butterfly, Blonde Redhead greets you with a gentle, meandering guitar. However, a scattered drum beat starts to bleed through, and suddenly the song gives way to an overflow of what sounds like brooding chamber music, plunging you into a delicately dark landscape that spans the length of the album. Blonde Redhead’s latest endeavor expands on the sound of their 2000 release, Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, and with the band’s departure from Touch & Go Records, it serves as a once-and-for-all break with their noise-rock origins.
MiaB is Blonde Redhead’s most emotional album to date, where Kazu Makino and Amedeo Pace deal with romantic insecurity and heartache. On the distant “Falling Man,” Amedeo addresses what he sees is the inevitability of hurt when he admits “I am just a man still learning how to fall.” On MiaB, if the lyrics provide the misery, then Makino’s fragile, whispered singing, and Amedeo’s desperately vulnerable whine are the incarnation of the butterfly.

The collection of string instruments and eerily simple keyboards, as in “Melody” and “Elephant Woman,” only enhance the melancholy mood the album’s title suggests. Though the album threatens to sag with the cumbersome “Anticipation,” “Maddening Cloud” swoops in with Simone Pace’s restless drums and Amedeo’s most energetic vocals, providing a needed jolt. MiaB’s high point is the duet, “Pink Love.” When Makino’s haunting voice takes over for Amedeo, your heart will swell. The stripped-down “Equus” ends the album with such energy that you will immediately take another plunge. With MiaB, Blonde Redhead has released a solid album that demonstrates both their maturity and talent.