:: Record Review

Valet

Naked Acid
(Kranky; 2008)

Rating: 71%

You’d be forgiven for thinking Blood is Clean (2007) was a genuine, shamanistic trance; an unedited, direct translation from psyche to record. Less so with Naked Acid, which seems more pre-meditated, though to what end it’s difficult to determine. Props to Honey Owens for embracing a more diverse psychedelic palette here, though I’d be lying if I didn’t say some of the mystery of her last record wasn’t missing. Regardless of it’s title, Naked Acid lacks much of the negative space of its predecessor, filling it with a less austere (though often blissfully gorgeous) drone that feels a little more familiar, touching on psych mainstays like Mazzy Star and Spacemen 3.

Opener “We Went There” epitomizes Owens’ newfound sense of langour: layers of tinkling percussion and barely-strummed guitar strings lead into multi-layered vocals that occasionally pull back to allow for wah-drenched Neil Young-esque solos. The track is a quintessential opener, like the record’s just waking up on a Saturday with nothing planned. While far from the preciousness that such delicate elements might suggest, it’s also a mile away from the kind of spare, almost suffocating tension of Blood is Clean.

“Drum Movie” carries the half-awake aesthetic even further, being essentially a series of patched-together ambient washes with little sense of overall structure. The sounds are interesting in and of themselves, and they flow together remarkably well, but the whole thing feels a little too neutral; everything is too abstract and nondescript to make for any emotional effect.

Still, I almost would’ve rather heard a whole album of these kind of experiments; in reality, the rest of the album follows a far more conventional path. “Kehaar” and “Fire” are almost folk songs, although the former stands out by managing to come closer than anything else here to the spirit-conjuring of Blood is Clean; its taut snare beating a grim funeral march over heavily-reverbed vocals.

“Fuck It” and “Babylon 4 Eva” sound like Valet trying for something as decadent as the titles suggest, although they’re not quite as loose as may be intended. “Fuck It” begins with the same drone-y elements of earlier tracks but attempts a climax that doesn’t entirely work, mainly because the vocals and guitar aren’t able to keep up with the violently-building speed of the drums towards the end of the track. “Babylon 4 Eva” succeeds to a greater degree by using the same aggressive percussion, but making it intrude sporadically throughout the track, managing to come close to the psychedelic freakouts of Tago Mago (1971); maintaining a fine balance between momentum and abstraction.

In reality, I’m being more critical than I mean to be here, especially since this kind of stoned-as-fuck approach to music is my bread and butter. In fact, all the tracks work on some level, but unfortunately they don’t coalesce into the great album that Naked Acid really deserves to be. Especially given the remarkable unity of Blood is Clean, it comes off as something of a loose-ends collection, which would make sense given its release comes less than a year after its predecessor. And yet it’s a completely different beast, just not in a way that suggests the same kind of crazed vision. It could have been Owens’ laid-back freak-folk album, her rousing psych-rock album, or her abstract tape-loop experiment; the fact that none of these tendencies really solidify at least suggests a lot of ground to cover in the future.