The Dean and the Paranoid Style
By 
I think the new Paranoid Style album is fantastic, but of course I may not be considered an impartial observer since i share a masthead with the bandleader. Fortunately, you don’t need to take my word for it, as the raves keep pouring in. Robert Christgau:
The Paranoid Style: The Paranoid Style Presents: The Interrogator (Bar/None) The only songwriter ever to rhyme “Savoy truffle” and “media kerfuffle,” Elizabeth Nelson and sidemen who start with her husband Timothy Bracy and here include perfectly suited original dB Peter Holsapple have assembled a sizable catalogue of catchy yet also politically sapient three‑minute songs that now fill up seven albums and an EP. Given how brainy Nelson’s lyrics are, her light soprano may strike some as insufficiently forceful, but aesthetic force is one thing brains are for, and as Nelson reminds herself, “If you haven’t got the temerity then you’d better turn around.” Hence one about a charity event called “Are You Loathsome Tonight.” Hence “The return of the Molly Maguires/From the ‘73 panic/To the children’s choirs.” Hence “Three credits short at Yokel State/She’s gonna be a legal aide.” Hence “I’ve spent time in education/I have spent time in jail/I’ve drunk from the river basin/I have skied in Vail.” A
And trust me that you could keep the Inspirational Verse coming for a while.
Nelson can create vivid imagery with a limited number of words: Buried within “Print the Legend” is the pithy putdown, “They had a reasonable plan to make an ill-advised move.” Her true gift is cramming too many ideas into a confined space, delivering her lines with affectless speed that can require a lyric sheet to decipher the literary, political, and cultural allusions. Depending on your particular disposition, certain phrases might emerge from the racket—“Sure as you’re born, they bought me a short black dress” is a clear nod to Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land,” for instance—but recognizing the titular puns of “Are You Loathsome Tonight” or “I Love the Sound of Structured Class” isn’t required to enjoy The Interrogator; this isn’t a lecture, it’s rock’n’roll.
As a faithful disciple of Dylan, Warren Zevon, and Elvis Costello, Nelson is keenly aware that rock’n’roll relies on visceral pleasures to convey its intellectual thrills. Bristling with rockabilly shuffles, refurbished Bo Diddley bops, and post-punk rave-ups, The Interrogator has an industrial-strength swing to match the steely glint in its production. The crisp execution emphasizes that the Paranoid Style aren’t content to conjure rock’n’roll ghosts: They’re creating unexpected connections by refurbishing familiar parts. Nelson isn’t a revivalist—she’s in dialogue with history, fully aware that the past is not even past.
The Interrogator comes in slamming. The title track kicks off with acoustic thrum and ““Highway 61 Revisited” whistle before going full speed ahead with a hurtling Nelson vocal and Rockpile-recalling boogie. Her words spill out so quickly that it becomes all you can do to catch some witty, punchy phrases before they disappear—like the Chuck Berry wink of “Sure as you’re born, they bought me a short black dress.” But the sound’s more than enough to keep you hangin’ on: The handclaps-and-saxophones rush carries “The Interrogator” as the Paranoid Style motorvate down the same sonic expressway to your heart that Berry built and followers like Dave Edmunds sped down to such effect. Berry’s legacy further comes through thanks to stabbing electric guitar from new band addition Peter Holsapple – co-founder of the mighty dB’s, affiliate of R.E.M. and Hootie & The Blowfish, and lifelong purveyor of pure pop for now people – and the big-swing rhythms of guitarist Timothy Bracy, bassist William Corrin, and drummer Jon Langmead.
Langmead’s strut also powers the second track, “I Love The Sound of Structured Class.” As David noted here a while back, the song also features “Holsapple [shredding] atop a big-beat groove that sounds sourced from Eliminator,” with Nelson “[dropping] bon mots like bombs.” The clever Nick Lowe homage in the title is another indication of how, to my ears, The Interrogator is in most obvious call-and-response with the Stiff Records crew, whose bash-and-crash blend of pub, punk, and pop helped define a mischievous and deceptively literate side of the British New Wave. Many tracks sound like they could have emerged from that sweaty, boozy would-be hit factory: the snapping Bo Diddley beat and art-student title of “Styles Make Fights;” the Brinsley-Schwarz-or-Steve-Nieve-esque organ (played expertly by keyboardist William Matheny) of “Print The Legend;” or the squall of “That Drop Is Steep” with its duetting siren guitars and echo-drenched vocal. “Something about rock and roll makes me nervous for the future,” Nelson admits here in a particularly good demonstration of the album’s juxtapositions of sound and sentiment. “Something about rock and roll makes it difficult to breathe.” (Later, the music “makes me feel defensive” and “affects the friends I keep,” two things that somehow affirm the sonic approach even as they undercut it.) She pulls a similarly layered trick on “Are You Loathsome Tonight?,” which pairs its cheeky title with what may be The Interrogator’s most purely lovely song, with tender slide guitar and graceful piano dancing with Nelson’s vocals. Make no mistake: When voicing this character, she damn sure sounds lonesome tonight.
Freddie deBoer has recently written many, many words arguing against the “liberals” who say that “if you don’t worship Taylor Swift you’re necessarily a Republican.” Do they exist in the material world? LOL of course not. But I think I can speak for liberalism, and let me be clear that you most certainly are a fascist if you don’t like The Interrogator.