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March 22, 2005
Celebrator
Blood Brothers - Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wreck
There is something very 50's ballad about this song, despite the fact that it features an extended throat-shredding screamy interlude. To wit: boy meets girl at school ("you met Jane four years ago today/dancing at some vomit-stained frat party), boy ditches girl for more exciting more Barbie-ish lady ("so you traded her in for a better looking brand"), boy gets into gruesome car accident ("those tire tracks zig zag your torso like the Devil's self-portrait"), flits into and out of consciousness, haunted by images of his ex ("she visits you in your sleep, but that newspaper gown is always on fire").
Jordan Blilie and Johnny Whitney work in contrasts- the former is a real crooner, the latter possesses an unbelievable falsetto/yell/wail. How it goes then is that this song turns on a dime- from sympathetic to accusatory and back again- thanks in no small part to the work of the vocalists. There have been periods when I've listened to this song 25 or more times in a row and relished it- it's just that absorbing and inventive; the Blood Brothers managed to create a captivating little romance with 'Love Rhymes...'- and it's one of those songs that almost demands a sequel (like New Pornographer/Destroyer Daniel Bejar's 'Jackie' on "Mass Romantic" and the forthcoming 'Jackie, Dressed in Cobras').
This song comes from the excellent 2004 LP "Crimes", which you can buy here.
Posted by matt at March 22, 2005 08:00 AM