5 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records

Produced by: Todd Rittman

With each release, Lovely Little Girls have affected something slightly different on the art-rock spectrum, starting out very much no-wave skronk, with a bit of performative bravado that I could trace to something like latter-day Thinking Fellers. This streamlined a bit into tighter – though still noisy – rock, with Koenjihyakkei a good comparison, swapping out zeuhl rants for Gregory Jacobsen’s detailed descriptions of bodily fluids and decay and various obsessions. And then LLG went, like, klezmer, ’cause why not, digging even more into the group’s costumed “identity” and sounding like a more street-dwelling version of Japonize Elefants.

That’s a lot going on. And I’ve enjoyed that lot. And then with Effusive Supreme, there was another addition or shift in the sound, while roping in all that came before, and I was realizing: I loved it. Then, identifying of what I was reminded of this time, it underlined that love, as LLG has become the first band to replicate the kind of focused energy and genre mashing of ska and rock and jazz and funk that was Mephiskapheles’ Maximum Perversion. The minor key chord progressions are there; Jacobsen’s full-on demoniac delivery; and the sharpness of the playing, with every member tuned in to delivering the ultimate performance, balanced for that track, whether that means taking the spotlight for a brutal solo, or just killing us with an excellent groove. You can choose to compare this album to something else, of course, or perhaps you’d look down on a ska punk band that had a Satan shtick; from me, this link is the highest praise.

One thing I’m also realizing LLG share with that album, even before Effusive, is how the perceived artifice of the band has never tainted the music in a way that takes away from it effectiveness. All of those styles mentioned above are executed to completion; whatever the intention is of the band – the extreme focus on natural goops; the occasional pantomime presentation; the heightened costuming the group has adopted – it somehow doesn’t feel like shtick. Everyone’s committed, and the music is so entrancing, that you’re fully in sway, singing along with the obsessiveness.

The performances and production on Supreme are, as usual, top notch. The shared chorus from L. Wyatt and Jacobsen on Be Good To Your Shoes has been stuck in my head for days; the be-bop-de-bop melodies are instant earworms, but gain even more traction by the band allowing such upbeat stuff to go dark and heavy as needed, given immediacy by Todd Rittman’s production and an excellently balanced mix.

I’ve been sold on this group for a while, but have been viewing them as sort of outsiders. They are that, of course, but Effusive Supreme is like holy crossover material, the kind of ultimate release that plays well to the art crowds, has enough edge for some rockers, but would also make a killing on NPR or sneaked onto your parents radio station. The only problem is: where do they go from here?