Pink Mountaintops
The Pink Mountaintops’ self-titled debut, which came out in 2004, doesn’t try to hide a thing–it’s a nonstop fuckfest. A concept album dreamed up by Stephen McBean–also the leader of Vancouver indie-scuzz quintet Black Mountain, who’ve benefited from the recent vogue for Canadian bands and last year toured with Coldplay–Pink Mountaintops abandons itself to carnality with the same completeness that a Pentecostal preacher abandons himself to the Holy Spirit. McBean says he came up with the idea for the record at the end of a long tour, high on Sparks and ephedrine and seriously missing his wife. It’s pure porn boogie so ribald and strange (not just women but also the usually unfuckable elements of fire and water get penetrated) that you could almost misread it as an ironic commentary on indie rock’s tendency to swaddle sex talk in shy romantic allusion. On “Sweet ’69” McBean sings, “Let me wrap my legs around you / Sweet honey pie / Gonna put my lips right on you.” And then he busts a harmonica solo.
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Like the Black Mountain full-length, Axis of Evol closes with a slow-burn epic about the war in Iraq. Like “Plastic Man” before it, “How We Can Get Free” indicts men of war who play God, giving orders and taking lives without reflection or regret. When McBean asks, like a true disciple, “Jesus, what do you believe?,” his voice languid and raw over a barely strummed acoustic guitar, it’s the album’s most effective moment. What all these songs are saying, with their narratives of sin and repentance, is that freedom lies in giving yourself over, in letting go of the notion that you’re in control or should be. McBean even implies that extinguishing the self by succumbing to wickedness can be a first step toward a better life–God can make a home in the empty space the devil leaves behind. Even for the worst among us, there’s always the possibility of redemption. It’s simply a matter of choice.
Price: $10
