5 out of 5

Label: Sub Pop

Producer: Larry Crane

I always got the impression that people hated on Pleasure Forever and I was never quite sure why.  Perhaps it was the continual name-shifting and slide from hardcore into glammish rock – from VSS to Slaves to Pleasure Forever in name.  Perhaps it wasn’t being quite commerical enough or new enough or young enough or x-factor enough to be a Sup Pop Spin cover band, or, by the same token, sludgy enough to be a respected historical member of their roster.  Maybe people never really hated on Pleasure Forever.

I didn’t.  I love their every moment, which I guess I’m supposed to consider indulgent but I totes don’t – every lavish keyboard segue, every whine or whisper by the lead singer, every solid beat of the drum or feckin’ blaring guitar lick and that moldy bass noise – I love it all.  This is rock n’ roll but it’s tainted by some evil thing.  I can’t quite tell you what – I mean, some themes of indulgence or cynicism trickle through the lyrics, but I can’t quite discern or quote anything – it’s more the sneer that you feel, like they’re singing this stuff while holding a knife at your throat.  That’s the other part that makes this work for me is that it’s got a very life sound but loose and flowing at the same time – the sign of people who have worked together for a while and know how to groove as a band.  Every moment sounds like it’s in its proper place, and the sequencing makes me want to cry – a proper bombast of build-up and then then album ebbs and flows with twinkling keys that give way to thump-thump beats to moments of intense intensity and then down, down to an echo-in-your-ears conclusion.

Pleasure Forever hints at pieces of rock I tend to dislike – glam, Ozzy Osbourne-esque stoner stuff – but they just take the pieces that fit and carve it up so the edges are actually jagged and dangerous feeling.  Evil rock, man.  I can dig it.