Albums You Probably Haven't Heard Yet: Bloodletting (1990)

Inspired by geekalpha's post a day or two ago about "opus albums" (that is, albums in which every track is a killer), I scanned my music-geekish brain cells for the albums I knew and loved as examples. One of the most prominent of them is the album that earned Concrete Blonde their frequently-attributed (and fairly inaccurate) standing as a Gothic Rock band: Bloodletting.

Song for song, this album is a masterpiece. It's short by most album standards, but there is not a second of filler to be found. The band still uses most of the songs on Bloodletting during their sporadic concert appearances, and if you've heard a Blonde song on the radio, chances are it came from Bloodletting.

The expanded version of the title cut(*) remains an obligatory dance-floor favorite at Goth clubs; I've often said that "Bela Lugosi's Dead" is the Gothic "Free Bird," "Temple of Love '92 is "Stairway to Heaven" and the expanded "Bloodletting" is "Hotel California" - they're the classics everyone loves to hate but everyone gets up and dances to when the DJ sets 'em spinning. Even without the tongue-in-cheek theatrics of the expanded version, "Bloodletting" is one of the better songs from the era between New Wave and Grunge. Its bass hook remains one of the most recognizable openers in post-60s rock, and the sing-along chorus is as infectious as a vampire bite.

And that's just the beginning.

When I first bought Bloodletting (around 1991 or early '92), the cassette was in a bargain bin. I guess the album had yet to catch on, because it's since become Concrete Blonde's most commercially successful release. Immediately, it floored me. I'd liked The Blonde since first hearing them on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 soundtrack(**), but this was far better than their previous albums. From the title cut, the album roars into "The Sky is a Poisonous Garden," another vampire-based song that reveals the band's Punk roots and becomes Bloodletting's obligatory "thrash the floor" track(***). Without missing a beat, the groove deepens with "Caroline," another signature song detailing singer Johnette Napolitano's trademark dysfunctional relationships. Slowing down further, "the Darkening of the Light" turns meditative, with a perfect counterpoint in "I Don't Need a Hero." This reflection closed Side One of the album, which allowed you to flip it over and rock out to "Days and Days," which features one of my all-time favorite bass guitar hooks. Breaking up the introspective mood toward the end of Side One, this song leads straight into "The Beast," a full-blown FUCK OFF to love as a concept. Performing a graceul mood-flip, the next song reveals the touching dedication of love in "Lullabye" before breaking it down through the band's most popular and enduring song, "Joey." Although I prefer the anguished live acoustic version on Still in Hollywood, the studio version of "Joey" remains the archetypal plea to the fuckup you just can't let go of no matter how hard you try. It's so popular because it's so true.

Overall, the album revolves around predatory relationships, needy-bleedy love, and the ultimate disappointments of mortality. The latter theme is underscored by the album's closer, "Tomorrow Wendy"; originally recorded by Wall of Voodoo (frequent collaborators with The Blonde), this bitter requiem for a friend dying of AIDs remains one of the bleakest songs of that era. Its naked emotionalism still disturbs me, and I used to dislike the track intensely, especially back when I was with my now-former wife Wendy. Now, though, I can hear the song for what it is: a slap in the face of a God who Napolitano calls on the carpet throughout her career yet never quite abandons. An ironic counterpart to the vampiric immortality of the first two tracks, "Tomorrow Wendy" stands as a testament of the days when AIDS was the scariest kid on the block, yet never actually mentions the disease by name. Like almost every other song on the album, this one raises goosebumps on me every time I hear it.

Musically, Bloodletting is gorgeous. It rips and chimes in all the right places, with a production that lets the band breathe yet never smothers them. (A shortcoming of their later albums, especially Mexican Moon.) James Mankey's guitar work is stunning; the fact that this guy is rarely mentioned in those obligatory "best rock guitarists" round-ups shows just how underrated Concrete Blonde continues to be. Although he draws obvious influences from Jimi Hendrix(****), Mankey sounds like no one else I can think of. His guitar provides an eloquent counterpart to Napolitano's haunting vocals, seeming to weep, choke and scream like a phantasmal human voice. That element of mortality earned the band its Gothic tag, even though their roots draw more from West Coast Punk than from, say, Bauhaus. The drum-work is spare but elegant, provided partly by terminal fuck-up bandmate Harry Rushakoff (who might have been the inspiration for a few of the album's dysfunctional "heroes") and partly by Paul/ Porl Thompson from Wall of Voodoo. The real foundations of The Blonde's sound, however, are Mankey's guitar and Napolitano's naked-sounding bass and voice. Bloodletting displays all three elements to devastating effect - the best the band ever achieved.

Although they would go on to release a half-dozen other albums (including the fantastic collection Still in Hollywood, another album you MUST hear), Concrete Blonde never again nailed the musical and emotional synergy that makes Bloodletting such an underrated classic. If you haven't heard it, give it a listen. If you have, dig it out again anyway.

----------------------

TRACK LISTING

"Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" 6:04
"The Sky Is a Poisonous Garden" (Moreland, Napolitano) 2:36
"Caroline" 5:30
"Darkening of the Light" (featuring Peter Buck) 3:24
"I Don't Need a Hero" 4:25
"Days and Days" 3:12
"The Beast" 3:52
"Lullabye" 3:56
"Joey" 4:07
"Tomorrow, Wendy" (featuring Andy Prieboy) (Prieboy)

---------------------

* - ...which is not actually on this album - it was a German single later re-released on Still in Hollywood.

** - A fantastic grab-bag from the Independent Record Syndicate (REM's original label) which featured tracks from yet-to-be-released newcomers Concrete Blonde and Timbuk Three, as well as Oingo Boingo, The Cramps, Lords of the New Church and more. The movie was kind of a mess, but the soundtrack was a killer in every sense of the word.

*** - Concrete Blonde featured one or two of these songs on each of their first several albums - fast-paced bare-bones rock-outs that sent concert-goers moshing at their gigs.

**** - Shown to great effect on their cover of "Little Wing," from Still in Hollywood.