Moist – Creature – Review

Moist

Creature (Arista)
by Barbara Restaino

Damn, it must be cold in Canada. The newest release from the latest alternative success from the land up north is downright frigid. Moist‘s sophomore album, following the release of Silver in 1994, is raw in the sense that the therapeutic (sometimes for you, often for lead vocalist/lyricist David Usher) whisper-wailing is like frozen wind – harsh, beating, chapping, and somehow comforting in its consistency. Alone, the band’s name brings morning dew and wet grass to mind, but after listening to Creature, I realize the wet grass lies underneath mounds of snow, and the dew is dripping from icicles. The album takes the listener through a metaphoric snowstorm – from staring up at the churning, ominous, slate sky (“Hate”), to the barrage pelting your shirt collar (“Theme from Cola”), to concentrating on the twisting white flakes from your bedroom window, lots on your mind (“Leave it Alone”), and at the end of it all, “Gasoline” melts it away with foggy moisture.

Creature has some attempts at heaviness, like “Baby Skin Tattoo” and “Ophelia,” but mostly the band teeters in the middle of that blurry area between a rock song and a ballad, very much like Live, but with less vitality. Yes, that’s what Moist is missing – a spark, a catchy beat,fire. I can feel a break from the bleakness on songs like “Resurrection” and “Shotgun,” starting out with the promise of a cool drumbeat, strummy guitars, and quirky lyrical experimentation, but then they go back to that blurry area again. I hate to admit it, but the best songs on the album (“Disco Days” and “Creature”) are actually extremely melancholy, but the songs also have a vibrant quality, which emerges when Moist enhances their talent by writing loneliness with even more loneliness. “Disco Days” is a beautiful piano song that cries, “Who could believe that it was over/Twisted the words to make it so goddamn easy for me/People will have to have lost their eyes to be the living.” The title song is another song that has an original sound. “Creature” features (way too tempting) a sentimental trumpet and yearning lyrics. I especially like this line: “Spoiled rotten by your secret/Still I like to hold your creature close to me.”
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