Wonderfully ramshackle and remarkably assured debut LP by Fleas of Mercy, the solo project of LA-based artist, Lynsey Robertson. Stucco has a solid track record for off-centre clatter and snark, but rarely have they uncovered something as sharply charismatic as The 8th of May. Robertson speak-sings her way through ten perfectly unbalanced lo-fi earworms that appear to re-imagine Lydia Tomkiw's Algebra Suicide in the context of Xpressway style avant murk. As combinations go, there's few others I'd prefer to hear, though of course it's not completely without precedent. The label makes comparison to early Cat Power, the kind of thinking I can only imagine is born of Chan Marshall's cover of Peter Jefferies 'The Fate of the Human Carbine'. Robertson's vocal is far less intense, but it's certainly comparable in terms of its sense of self - this is clearly a writer & performer who knows exactly who they are. Out there on the West Coast, Fleas of Mercy aren't entirely alone in their thinking, sharing at least some of the same DNA as Cindy, Nowhere Flower, The Spatulas, and Hospital, which if nothing else is further evidence that something special keeps fueling the magic out that way beyond the accepted purview of the mainstream. The 8th of May is undoubtedly another victory for the undying underground. Edition of 100 (be swift!).
FFO: Algebra Suicide, Nowhere Flower, Cat Power, Hospital, Cindy
Fleas of Mercy - The 8th of May
£27.00
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