Paul's Tomb: A Triumph (Bonus Track Version)

iTunes Review

Frog Eyes vocalist Carey Mercer is a man possessed; he gets inside the words he’s delivering and wallows around in them before bellowing, or yelping, or — crooning. He tries them on for effect, not size: there is no such thing as too big, or too little. Mercer is, as usual, at the core of this Frog Eyes outing (album number five), and while the music careens, erupts and spirals as it always has, this time around things feel a little less chaotic, a little more reined in. Quasi-epic opening track “A Flower in A Glove” is, for the most part, a restrained quasi-epic, with a few hair-raising moments of near calamity, but the song keeps pulling itself back from the brink. Sprawling, playful, brawny — think Captain Beefheart meets the Birthday Party — this Canadian outfit revels in delivering music that is complex and layered, and which demands a little heavy lifting. When a big, scrapping song like “The Sensitive Girls” gives way to a satisfyingly clear view of the true magnificence of Mercer’s voice, or a Nick Cave-ish “Violent Psalms” suddenly appears, it’s all worth it.