Occasionally Vulgar, Sometimes Profound, Always Fun

Electric Six is a band that shrinks farther into mystery the more you attempt to define them. Over their twenty year, eleven album existence, Dick Valentine’s ensemble has been described as “dance punk,” “shock rock,” and best of all, “disco metal.” Is disco metal actually a thing? Who knows, but what’s important is that any band worthy of such an eclectic classifier is going to be eye-opening and fun and hell.

Any discussion of Electric Six has to start with the lyricism. Valentine’s direct, sometimes blunt, often crass manner of communication is an acquired taste, but one that’s not hard to acquire. Whereas the band’s initial releases were often rightfully derided as puerile, Valentine has had twenty years to mature, and it shows. The silly lines are legitimately hilarious as opposed to immature—“open the kimono, too much info,” delivered the line with presidential poise and confidence at the beginning of “I Got the Box,” is legitimately hilarious.

In its more serious moments, which dominate Fresh Blood, the straightforward, no holds-barred approach to songwriting leads to genuine emotional intimacy. Electric Six often sounds like a conversation between partners who understand each other enough to talk without pretenses. “I hate you,” he admits to an archetypal partner, before admitting, “but we’ll be in touch.” And Valentine is not without flashes of poetic inspiration befitting his name. “I can’t square that particular circle until you’re nicer to me,” he admits, invoking famous mathematical imagery while showing genuine weakness in response to an ill-founded desire to fall deeper in love with a enchanting yet cruel person.

The emotional and informational terrain of the singing make Fresh Blood extremely rewarding upon close listens, but ultimately, it’s the variegated instrumentation that’s a blessing to get lost in. While some bands try to reinvent themselves after each album, Electric Six often feels like it’s starting anew with each song. Opening track “Acid Reducer” sets a deceptive mood with of hazy, opium den synths that would drift off into space if not held together by tight hi-hats. As soon as the listener is beginning to get comfortable, “Number of the Beast” jolts him or her awake by going full-on “rave in the robot factory mode”: an incredibly catchy, futuristic electric melody and glittery synth tug at the listener’s hips before the pummeling guitar kicks in and elicits the listener’s inner head-banger. Is it rock? Is it dance music? Leave the semantics to the nerds and you’ll have a far better time.

“I’ll Be in Touch” and “Lottery Reptiles” will satisfy a craving for more traditional hard rock song structures. The pause in the middle of the line “I hate you… but I’ll be in touch” is one of the more resonant sentiments in the album. A shockingly sophisticated, almost orchestral section closes out “I’ll Be in Touch”: the strings and brass give off a feeling of beautiful coldness, like being roused from sleep to catch the last glimpses of the aurora.

Fresh Blood for Tired Vampyre’s well-placed peak comes a little over halfway into the album with the gloriously exhilarating alien banger that is “My Dreams.” It’s a weird track in so many ways: there’s a recurrent synth that sounds like an insect chirping, surprisingly complex drumming, and more than one reference to laser beams. Yet each element is so discretely integrated, and the song moves with such an upbeat, quick pace, that the track never sounds clunky. On the contrary, it soars.

Giving an Electric Six record a spin is like opening a Jack-in-the-box with each song. You can expect each song to be stuffed to the brim trinkets and surprises like deep house, jungle funk, punk vocals, funk vocals, and falsettos so convincing you check the track listing to see if you missed an Arianna Grande feature. Fresh Blood is a whirlwind that’s over before you know it, at which point you’ll probably be grabbing for earlier releases in their discography.

Essential tracks: Number of the Beast, I’ll Be in Touch, My Dreams