| The Devil has always been there.
He is the great outsider, the original iconoclast. He is a conniving little jerk and never seems to tire of giving humanity a wedgie or a wet willie just for a laugh. The Devil is capable of taking many forms. He can exist as one being or spread out amongst many. He can present himself as an ordinary man or as a horrific cloven-hoofed beast depending on his mood. Above all else, The Devil lives to corrupt, to adulterate, to defile.
Electric Six has often used The Devil as subject matter for its songs because of that last bit, the part about corruption and adulteration. That’s what Electric Six has been trying to do with its music now for quite some time! With its fourteenth studio album BRIDE OF THE DEVIL (Metropolis Records; release date October 5, 2018), ELECTRIC SIX examines the concepts of evil and corruption, humanity’s various falls from grace, the nine circles of purgatory and of course, the internet itself. Bride of the Devil opens with the thunderous opener “The Opener,” a bombastic celebration of the arena rock Electric Six never got to play. The next two numbers are textbook ear worm guitar pop numbers that deal with debilitating income inequality and nepotism (“Daddy’s Boy”) and the horrors of being forced into a pool of toxic waste by an a rabid Doberman trained to kill (“(It Gets) (A Little) Jumpy.”
The title track, a radio anthem, is where it all becomes clear that The Devil is a metaphor for Russia, and the United States is the young girl who is seduced, corrupted and wedded into a Satanic covenant with the Beast. It’s all there in black and white. The Carrie Underwood-esque lyrics alongside a backdrop of vodka and caviar and back channels and Seychellen bank accounts. That’s how they did it. They went after our country performers and got the rubes to feel good about being Russian assets. And still, it is the feel-good anthem of the summer.
Finally, the haunting album closer “Worm In the Wood” is Electric Six at its most serious, most tender and emotional. Haunting. Effervescent. Corrupt. Jaundiced. Tired. |
