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The Bather
The band Plays on


CD album | gg271
First solo album by former Residents composer Hardy Fox after the Charles Bobuck era. An album full of minimal love songs, a portrait of the young Hardy Fox. This is what he says about this solo debut: "Here’s a new idea. How about writing a love song? Oh, you say it’s been done, maybe overdone. So why would I be so foolish as to tackle such a subject so fraught with cliches and meaningless sentiment. Probably because I am stupid. But also because I have been led around by love in some form for my entire life. That isn’t really a complaint. Seriously, there is isn’t much in the world that is as interesting as love and its many related variations: attraction, obsession, sexual fantasies, broken hearts. It is the fuel that many of our lives run on. The question remains. Why join the hoard of people trying to say something new about love? I suppose that the emotional state is, more or less, unique to each person. Each of us has our approach to dealing with and surviving the chemical and hormonally driven state of mind. For me, I am still able to love as an older gentleman, but the intensity of love always takes me back to my youth when all was new and strange. Each element that drove sexual exploits had to be explored, considered and digested. Now older, I am able to gain some objectivity to set memories to music. This album is a glimpse into my younger self. Well truthfully, probably not. It is likely yet another fantasy of an aging man, still led around by his dick." Full tracklist: 1. A Song About You 2. The Bother 3. Broken Hurt 4. The Band Plays On 5. Light Of Day 6. Mess 7. Leg 8. Christ 9. Rather B U 10. Name 11. Talking To You 12. South 13. Walks In The Sand 14. Yogurt. Price: € 17,-/copy incl. worldwide shipping.

Sonically the new album is more pared-back - in both its genres and instrumental use, focusing in on a blend of electronica, synth pop, and sparse pop in general. Lyrical it is certainly a lot more personal and emotional than any of the work he did either under the Bobuck name or with The Residents. Sure there are still flicks of dark humor and cryptic elements present, but for the most part, it is a surproisingly open and emotional record - talking about relationships, love, sexuality, and old age. (...) We move from the wavering warm-to slowly pulsing techno hits of A Song For You onto the harmonic synth pop choppiness meets synth string simmer of Broken Hurt. Through the dark and moody 1980s soundtrack like synth weaves and throbbing bass of Leg. Onto slurred blipping-blopping synth pop and vocoder vocals of Name. Ending with the bright ethnic-techno meets ambient synth vistas of Yogurt.
(Musique Machine, April 2018)