There are two things to be aware of when going into the sonic labyrinth that is the newest Pere Ubu album: 1) David Thomas has hinted that this is the end of the road, or words to that effect; and, 2) the band had been listening to a lot of pop radio when they were creating this one. As such, The Long Goodbye, out on Friday via Cherry Red Records, sounds utterly unlike most of the previous Ubu albums, at least the ones that have come out since Clinton was in office. And I'm not trying to make it sound as if Pere Ubu have gone and made a Top 40 record -- if they even could! -- but, rather, that the band have used surprisingly sleek textures here on this one, even as they are busy dismantling the whole damn thing as each song progresses. In that sense, The Long Goodbye is a bold and transgressive release, from a group who have consistently pushed the envelope of what constitutes popular, albeit alternative, music for decades.
Opener "What I Heard On The Pop Radio" is all slick surfaces and gurgles of resentment, while the sharper "Flicking Cigarettes at the Sun" is not only wonderfully-titled but a churning deconstruction of "The Final Solution" in some ways. If the Ubu don't entirely let the fire loose on these new tracks, it's worth noting just how unsettling lots of The Long Goodbye is. And I mean that in the best possible way. The epic "The Road Ahead" mixes in flashes of stuff that sounds like old Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire records in the service of a tune by the guy who could be said to have done more to bridge the worlds of industrial and punk than even those Brits ever did, while "Fortunate Son" is a riff (spoken and rocked) on the old CCR number. If Thomas sounds in command here, there's a trace of doubt to his vocals, such that this one feels like one of the warmest performances he's given in ages. If the majority of The Long Goodbye cannot be as seemingly light as "Who Stole The Signpost?", a brief percussive workout, it's still a stunning record, and one which sees the Pere players dive headfirst into something that actually takes a few damn chances. I can't say that about too many bands these days.
The Long Goodbye is paired with a live album -- Montreuil -- on this release from Cherry Red. The band play The Long Goodbye live, as it existed back in December 2018 while they were working out how to render the songs in a concert setting, and they're joined by the legendary Christ Cutler (Henry Cow). A tune like "Lovely Day" is actually better, and more mournful in this live version, while older tunes like "The Road to Utah" and "Heart of Darkness" are served up in performances that are downright definitive. A fun trick might be to play the live album first and then The Long Goodbye proper next, in order to hear how the musicians worked this stuff out, and expanded it. Still, with only four players -- David Thomas, guitarist Keith Moline, keyboard-wiz Gagarin, and Chris Cutler -- in the live portions, The Long Goodbye is a slightly different animal live, especially with Cutler's percussion efforts adding punctuation to the tunes.
The Long Goodbye is out on Friday via Cherry Red.
More details on Pere Ubu via the official website, or the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Cherry Red]