Pere Ubu – Carnival of Souls

Album Review by Chris Buckle | 28 Aug 2014
Album title: Carnival of Souls
Artist: Pere Ubu
Label: Fire Records
Release date: 8 Sep

Roll up, roll up – but keep your wits about you. Pere Ubu are back with Carnival of Souls, and judging by the album’s sustained air of menace, it’s the kind of carnival that will have you waking up the next day with a blinder of a headache and a missing kidney.

From the eerie organ sound of Drag the River to the abstract atmospherics underpinning Dr. Faustus (which reaches its ghoulish zenith with cries of “I’M DAAAAAMED!”), Carnival of Souls finds David Thomas’s art-rock stalwarts on more challenging form than last year’s Lady from Shanghai – itself no cakewalk for the casual listener. Tracks like Golden Surf II and Irene (noisy, propulsive rock and tender ballad respectively) provide key footholds amidst the unsettlement, while, elsewhere, echoes of Screaming Jay Hawkins and Mysterioso Pizzicato add to the sinister tone – making Carnival of Souls another fascinating wildcard in a career full of them. [Chris Buckle]

Playing Manchester Band on the Wall on 15 Nov; Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms on 18 Nov and Glasgow CCA on 19 Nov http://www.ubuprojex.com