Punk Retrospective: Alice Donut's The Untidy Suicides of Your Degenerate Children

Oh, if only there were a band that could pick up where Alice Donut left off. The band's 3rd album, "The Untidy Suicides of Your Degenerate Children," remains some of their seminal work, impressing audiences with the psychedelic, multi-layered punk the band was known for, while managing to shift effortlessly with their artistic progression.

On "The Untidy Suicides" opening track, Magdalene, the rolling bass line alone could hook any listener, regardless of previous knowledge of the band. Within a minute and a half, Alice Donut breaks into one of their soaring choruses-something they could make happen like no one else. It's the start of an album that could start any party on fire.

Next up is the title track to "The Untidy Suicides." The track features a sick guitar riff over a cowbell, but the song is too much of a shock to the brain for Will Ferrell to ever parody. Unlike [the Blue Oyster Cult song], this one's got just the right amount of the aforementioned instrument. A sick guitar solo comes in around three minutes too.

Up next is the first of three avant garde breaks in the album, all of which are named "Loteria." The tracks come as a real treat to the brain, allowing it to huff and puff between some of the punk rock sprints present on the album.

"Everybody is on Sale," the fifth track on "The Untidy Suicides," is a surprisingly slow jam. Its tongue-in-cheek approach to the modern American condition shines in its lyrics. It's pretty catchy, as well.
"Hang the Dog" (the sixth track) speeds up the album a bit, with a highly distorted left/right speaker guitar-assualt. It's catchy and well-written, despite only lasting two and a half minutes. Oh yeah, two and a half minutes is pretty long for a punk song.

What follows is "X-Postal," which just may be the sand in the line for listeners who don't enjoy the lead singer's delivery. It's a fairly minimalist track, with quieter instrumentation toward the beginning, and the singer's voice is a bit whiny. The song itself is rather cool though, with some heavy psychosis surrounding a postal job. This is a perfect transitional point for the album, with "Annie's Empty" kicking off where "X-Postal" left off. It's short and sweet-reminiscent of an old Jane's Addiction song.

The tenth track, "Medication," and the eleventh track, "Things Have Never Looked Better," are two songs that compliment each other perfectly in both style and content. Alice Donut deals with apathy and the body so well, dragging tracks when necessary and never failing to inject some disturbing effect in post-production. If there is one song worth listening to on this track, it's "Medication," and it would be hard to hit stop once the opening chords of "Things Have Never Looked Better" fade in.

Track twelve, "Wire Mother," isn't an entirely pleasing track, but only because it isn't nearly as catchy as the other tracks on "The Untidy Suicides." The narrative is purposefully scattered, with the instrumentation acting as a sort of crutch for the story. It wraps up well, but leaves listeners asking 'what just happened?' Regardless, this is surely what Alice Donut intended the track to do.

Further evidence of Alice Donut's musical intentions come on the last tracks of the album, "She Loves You..." and "In My Head." These songs are a perfect dessert, in respect to the meat of the album. They're two slow songs, both with ethereal qualities that leave a fresh taste in the mouth.

"The Untidy Suicides" by Alice Donut is available from Alternativetentacles.com