5 out of 5

Label: Arctic Rodeo Recordings

Producer: Bryce Goggin

So I love Skeleton Key.  Bias review.  Sorry.  But let’s go over some things, and it’s your job to not kill me, ‘kay?

Gravity is the Enemy: Skeleton Key’s best album?  I know, freakin’ nutballs, right?  Because I listened to ‘Fantastic Spikes’ over, and over, and over, and over again.  But I can admit something: that I can listen to it so many goddamn times maybe in part because its only like 30 minutes long, maybe because I want to lick Dave Sardy’s magical production boots, because maybe I’ll say that after ‘Vomit Ascot,’ the album loses a bit of punch for me.  ‘Teeth’ and ‘Dear Reader’ are awesome tracks, and I love the lyrics to the album closer, but the whole stomach-dropping heart-pounding maniacal rush of energy I get is primarily due to tracks one through seven, and if the end of the disc went on much further beyond that… hm.

The Solitaire EP is what it is, some great songs, a great listen, but not enough to qualify it as the best thing ever.

Their Ipecac release always, to me, sounded like an Ipecac release – a bit too slick and shiny, stripping the band of the organic quality that makes them click so well.  Erik Sanko’s sense of funk and that junk kit help make it a fun listen, but none of the tracks on it make it to my list of faves.  From here on out Sanko’s vocals also get a little cleaned up, and so his interestingly creaky but obvious metaphors start becoming more discernible, which is a plus / minus – good ideas, and it’s nice to be able to ‘feel’ what you’re singing along to, but sometimes a little simplistic or childish in the way that the concepts are painted.

The Lyon’s Quintet EP had some great feckin’ songs, but it’s so mashily recorded that it sounds like it’s being pushed through your speakers, every person in the band leaning against the music to ooze it forth one note at a time.

But it added up to ‘Gravity.’  Their only album on which any given track can make me dance.  Sanko’s lyrics maintain that same iffy writing sense, but something has energized him, and he and the band got the funk back from ‘Spikes,’ but shred it to pieces with layers and layers of punk and rock.  It can get a little screamy at times, admittedly, but to my ears it doesn’t sound off, like an old band trying to shout its way back to relevance.  It’s just the opposite.  Perhaps reinvigorated by the successful kickstarter campaign which funded this, perhaps – as Sardy queued up a big and funky sound for ‘Spikes’  – perhaps producer Goggin’s knowledge of the fringey world of music (Antony and the Johnsons, Apples in Stereo) helped shape of their effectiveness in the studio which shaped up the song-writing sessions… who the shit knows.  It just feels legit.  All of the tracks from ‘Lyon’s’ reappear, but they are different animals, so it’s worth owning both.  ‘Roses’ and ‘Machine Screw’ are probably the best examples of this, tracks which came across as brutal nigh-noise (even the slow ‘Roses’) on ‘Quintet’ get cleaned and boogied up here, while still maintaining their core theme and feel.  Even the oddball tracks – The Mowling Devil and I’ll Walk You to The Door – get me going, ‘Devil’ a chanting percussion piece that solidifies a group feel that hasn’t been present beforehand, and ‘Walk’ more in the vein of solo Sanko but, again, without the slick sound (though that release was on Jetset records).

Shucks, fellas.  I hope you bought this album.  I hope you see them on tour.  I hope I see you there and bump in to you when I’m shaking my body in a dancey Skeleton Keyed up daze.