Whale: All Disco Dance Must End In Broken Bones

Whale's debut album, We Care, had the misfortune of being about two and a half months ahead of its time. Recorded hastily to cash in on the fluke success of "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe," and recorded with the assistance of a pre-fame Tricky, We Care combined swooning Swedish pop, moody trip-hop, and self-parodying heavy metal in a way that seemed both cohesive and out-of-control. But what really made We Care a remarkable album was the pop smarts buried beneath the sloppiness of the band's playing. On its new All Disco Dance Must End In Broken Bones, a substantially revamped Whale—minus cofounder Gordon Cyrus and plus three new members—continues to imbed irritatingly catchy hooks in a smorgasbord of heavy-metal chords, electronic noises, stoned raps, old-school scratching, and primitive guitar solos. As on the first album, the band alternates between simple, sweet ballads and self-consciously eccentric rave-ups. Of the slow songs, "Roadkill" is by far the standout, a minimalist ballad that showcases the surprising sweetness in Whale lead vocalist Cia Soro's otherwise campy and over-the-top persona. Disco Dance is as willfully eclectic as its predecessor, and if the band's indiscriminate genre-hopping can feel messy and self-indulgent, it also prevents things from getting too staid or formula-bound. Produced in Chicago by Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Veruca Salt) and in Sweden by Chris Potter (The Verve), Disco Dance could use a little more cohesiveness, but Soro and company's continued willingness to experiment and risk lurching into self-parody is as admirable as it is foolhardy. While nothing on Disco Dance is as catchy or memorable as We Care's "Kicking" or "Happy In You," it still proves that the band's excellent first album was more than just a happy fluke.