5 out of 5

Label: Beatville

Producer: John Congleton

Sure, it’s probably one of the loudest things you’ve ever heard that doesn’t involve double bass drums and growly guy, but Paper Chase is a band of restraint, and ‘Hide the Kitchen Knives’ is Johnny C right at his boiling point.  There are other albums in the PC catalogue to which I’d probably give five stars; ‘Hide’ didn’t come to mind at first.  This is all a backhanded compliment, but it distracts with how consistently solid and rewarding it is – every single song has an important feeling, hook, memorable lyric, hefty beat, stunning break, etc.  I’d listened to the album a couple times through without realizing it – but not in the way some albums just blend together.  I was hearing every song for sure.  And not getting tired of it.  The prior album, ‘Young Bodies’, is a little too chaotic, and the Kill Rock Stars followup ‘God Bless’ perhaps features some of the group’s singular best songs but it can be something of a mentally and aurally exhausting trip from start to finish.  As long as your volume is fixed at the right level from the opening track of ‘Kitchen Knives,’ though, you should be good for the runtime.

The first couple tracks here set what would become something of a traditional structure for the next albums – ‘I Did a Terrible Thing’ builds with slowly creepy keys and thudding bass, introducing our themes of hidden dangers – as represented through frequent sampling of killer Larry Gene Bell – before the song lets loose into, finally, its crescendo of Congleton.  Track two, ‘Where Have Those Hands Been?’ then immediately booms in, heavy on everything but stripping out a lot of the excess that made ‘Young Bodies’ a bit too frantic, nigh perfecting the sparse hardcore that John had been playing with… though it admittedly would become even more fully realized on ‘God Bless,’ the forward momentum that this album maintains gives it a more immediate feel.  Because from here on out, except for our samples, once again stitched into the proceedings, its all turned up to 11, track three ‘I’m Going to Spend the Whole Rest of My Life Lying’ somehow adding to the low end with a weirdass horn punctuation and then later down the road, something almost resembling a punk song with ‘A Little Song About Trust.’  Along the way we’re treated to surprising production nuances that can get lost in the bluster but enhance things immensely once headphones make you aware of that extra layer, whether it’s a twinkle of keys, or a string loop, or a drum sample, chattering the background.

‘God Bless’s heart theme allows for some interesting lyrical concepts and imagery and the zombie uprising and natural disaster bits on the albums after that the same; ‘Hide the Kitchen Knives’ is still at a point where John is angry, but blending in those poetics.  The lyrics are not blurry as to their intentions, but are steeped in enough imagery and dreck to make it a vehicle for singing along when angry, or sad, or pissed, or any heightened emotion, really.  It can be fun, it can be terrifying, whatever you need.  There’s also a nice bit of reprieve toward the end of the album – ‘Drive Carefully, Dear’ peels back to just a drumbeat and repeated lines before the title track, as with many Paper Chase albums, attempting to complete a circle, closes things out with elements of the opening song.

Yes, I can wax on about most discs from this group’s career, and will / would probably end up telling you overwhelming positives about any given album.  But I really dug revisiting ‘Hide the Kitchen Knives.’  Its easy to stick with the more ‘finished’ stories of ‘God Bless’ and beyond; excellent though they are, once they’re well committed to yer music memory, taking a step back to a time in Beatville release history when Paper Chase albums weren’t quite as polished turns out to provide one of their most continually listenable releases.