Blackout Beach - Skin Of Evil (2009)

Genre : Indie,Rock,Experimental FROG EYES!!
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Tracklist

01. Cloud of Evil
02. Biloxi, In A Grove, Cleans Out His Eyes
03. Three Men Drown In The River
04. William, The Crowd, It's William
05. The Roman
06. Woe To The Minds Of Soft Men
07. The Whistle
08. Nineteen, One God, One Dull Star
09. Sophia, Donna, I Was Down The River Waiting
10. Astoria, Menthol Lite, Hilltop, Wave of Evil, 1982

Carey Mercer’s solo project, Blackout Beach, has been dormant since the release of his debut (Light Flows the Putrid Dawn) in 2004. That’s not to say that he hasn’t kept busy with other things… In that time, Frog Eyes has released two astounding albums & one EP, in addition to touring the world more than once. Mercer also started a side project, Swan Lake, with friends Dan Bejar & Spencer Krug. Somehow in the midst of it all, he’s found time to write & record an epic new Blackout Beach full-length. At the risk of seeming overly hyperbolic, we’d like to formally proclaim that it’s his most dense, rewarding, and frankly best work to date.

Skin of Evil is a song cycle based upon a character, Donna, and her past and present lovers. Though, as Mercer stresses in his own blog, “I think my albums always get mis-represented. Skin of Evil is not so much about ‘Donna’, as it is about my own attempt to just stick to something, and not veer off into the nebulous domains of ‘fractured social commentary.’ I think that in this sense Skin of Evil is a moderate success.” Over the course of it’s ten songs, Skin of Evil does suceed in sticking to it’s story, which is set against a dark backdrop that manages to reference proto-punk icons Pere Ubu & the textural/dense recent Scott Walker works. That’s to say it’s a wholly unique listen; one that’s highly listenable, and yet challenging (in the best sense of each word).