Album Review: Flamingo Minutes – Rescue
The back cover of Rescue’s Flamingo Minutes features a somewhat questionably dressed girl underneath bright motel ‘vacancy’ lights, holding a sign that reads, “I will settle down with the first one who swoons me.” It’s a rather surreal image, evoking thoughts of lonely small-town girls, dolled up in way too much make-up, waltzing down a Vegas strip in search of some sort of long-lost American dream.
The concept of that image fits Flamingo Minutes well. This, essentially, is a disc that thrusts its most jagged nature out like a badge of honor, though all the while, the true power of the disc lies in the subtle intonations and interactions between the tracks as they make up the entity of the EP as a whole.
The opening “I Am the Queens of Comparison” works like the most beautiful train wreck ever seen, as the lyrics profess stark declarations of emotional rock bottom (“I am a widow and I need a man to carry me…We’ll stain the sheets or wave our flag / But I know we’ll never have what I once had with him…I want to feel you fuck me / Because there wasn’t much to feel anymore”) over a mystifying, twisting bed of music that mimics and amplifies the awkward grasping related through the lyrics. When Alan Scheurman awkwardly croons the “I will settle down with the first one who swoons me” lyric spelled out on that back cover, it’s the ultimate resolution of complacency and acceptance. The track bleeds into the 80-second frantic binge of “Psuffix,” which purges the previous track and cleans the slate for the opening rhythm guitar wails of “Moments & Morning: 1981-1986,” which twist and slink along to create a vibe that teeters manically between brooding and unbalanced. “Concerns” is the most aggressive track on the disc, a barely three-minute romp that rolls out (of all things) a few slide guitar pieces to add a spacey nature to this otherwise crunching number. The track crescendos intensely, with a whirlwind alarm-sound guitar build-up taking place behind the disc’s most sing-song cadence, “Life’s leaning / Balance / Throw your weight and chance this.”
“Song for the Eager and the Invisible” can’t quite tell what it wants to be, going from a dead rock start-up to an almost emo-sounding guitar hum in seconds flat. The track’s chorus soars, as Scheurman’s vocal style provides the perfect fodder for Mike Majewski to add emotive punctuation with his guitar noodling. This is easily the most anthemic track here, if for no other reason than because the rhythm section pounds out a devastatingly concrete beat that doesn’t change up often and irregularly, per the band’s usual motif. Standing alone as a downloadable MP3 on Rescue’s website, “Eating Jesus” seems a bit flat. In the context of the material around it, though, the track flourishes by offering a sort of musical respite from the overly active tracks before it. The Elliott Smith inspired “Through/Suit” is a complete change of pace, as Scheurman really pares back the intensity level on his vocals. Coupled with a few lap steel drops and a surprising acoustic backing, this track can best be described as ‘unexpected,’ to say the least. Closer “Happy Veteran’s Day” goes all over the place with subtle restraint, taking an initial stop-and-go riff and cascading it into a multitude of quick-lick rhythms. The lyrics are forceful (“I’ll admit this was fun / But I need someone more capable of giving a fuck / Not fucking to get / Like a landmine makes an amputee / You just have to make a fool of me”), though by the end of the track, the guitars have lightened up just enough at times to add a vaguely delicate touch to the song.
Despite the fact that I’ve already listened to this EP at least ten times in the past day, it’s only officially been released for two or three days at this point, making it hard to tell how well this release will hold up in the long run next to the band’s fabulous full-length, Volume Plus Volume. Flamingo Minutes appears to be one of those discs that ages better over time; one or two listens won’t cut it with music structured the way Rescue writes and performs. Diligent and patient folks, however, will be very well rewarded – and really, isn’t that the basis of an American dream after all? – Gary Blackwell
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