Rarely do I get to experience an album that actually moves me. Even records I enjoy don’t often grab hold of my heart and tear it out chunk by chunk. Julie Christmas does just that with The Bad Wife, an epic record that showcases a potential we haven’t seen from her in the past. This is her meltdown, a nervous breakdown caught on tape. Christmas, known for her vocals with Made Out Of Babies, will shock and awe people with her talent on this album.
At times Christmas’s vocals are quiet, almost sexy, then her range explodes and she screams out with a sound that will rattle your whole being. When Christmas’s voice cracks it’s because she literally can’t push anything else out of her. The opening song “July 31st” soars, riding huge riffs and drums until the crash, when a darker side of Christmas sets in.
The nervous breakdown has begun here and there’s no turning back. Her cover of Jacques Brel’s “If You Go Away” is where the unheard talent of Julie Christmas really comes into play. I doubt a more beautiful song has been recorded this year. It’s the catalyst of the breakdown, the thing that serves as porthole into Christmas’s mind.
From there anything goes and usually does. The acoustic “Secrets Men Keep” sounds like it’s being sung while Christmas desperately tries to breathe. The texture is so delicate and so tense I kept waiting for the song to shatter. Instead it rides the tension until the end. “Six Pairs Of Feet And One Pair Of Legs” is a creepy, piano driven track that incorporates elements of abstract soundscapes and noise music, with Christmas belting out animal screeches between maniacal sounding verses. This is the relapse, the time when things can really go wrong.
Those who love Made Out Of Babies will be happy to know Christmas does revisit some familiar territory with the songs “Bow” and “Headless Hawks”. These songs don’t sound like Made Out Of Babies but they are more straightforward heavy tracks than the rest of The Bad Wife has to offer.
Lyrically Christmas is just as honest. When she sings, “I broke his heart so many times and now I’ve finally broken mine” it’s crushing. When she breathes in hushed tones “The cuts on your cheek say you’ve been somewhere wrong. How far I would follow, to see where you’ve gone” it actually hurts. If Christmas made this all up, if The Bad Wife wasn’t triggered by a tragic event in her life, I applaud her for fooling me because this sounds like one of the most cathartic albums I’ve ever heard.
As amazing as Julie Christmas is, if the music on The Bad Wife weren’t equally as brilliant it wouldn’t work. The musicians and writers gathered to accompany Christmas understand exactly what she was put here to do and give her a place to do it. The music rises and falls, twists and turns, just as often as the vocals and never gets boring or monotonous. It’s rare you fine an album that work as an instrumental record, an acapella record or a combination of both.
I was particularly impressed with how the music felt like little scraps brought together or tiny bits stitched together for effect. Imagine a bastard hybrid of Gypsy music, circus music, noise and heavy rock. When vocals play such a prominent part on an album the music is usually there as just a base. The music for The Bad Wife is quicksand, constantly moving and covering Christmas as she erupts from mad binge to mad binge.
The Bad Wife is one of the best albums to come out this year, hands down. While it may not dethrone Killing Joke from my top spot, every other album on my list will have to do battle with it. This is a record that never succumbs to cliché, never blinks and never allows the listener to become complacent. These are tragically beautiful songs performed by a woman who has a clear vision of what she wants to say. Julie Christmas may be beautiful, but it’s her voice, words and ability that have captured me completely.
CRAVE ONLINE RATING 9 OUT OF 10
