Why? Alopecia by: Dan Osmolowski Fri:11-Apr-08 Label: Anticon. Year: 2008 WB rating 92 out of 100

The notion of ‘originality’ is one that regularly surfaces when discussing the various music scenes that exist outside what is popular. To seek out the new, inventive and creative is what (we lead ourselves to believe) sets apart the genuine music fan from their commercial radio listening counterpart. But let’s not get carried away. Sometimes we music geeks can be guilty of disappearing up our own collective arseholes in the pursuit of finding the next album that ‘sounds like nothing else out there’. What does this statement mean? Why is this so important? And is the album actually any good?

To answer some of the most important philosophical questions of our time, let’s turn our attention to exhibit A. Appearing under the name Why?, Alopecia is Yoni Wolf’s third album (the second with a full band) and it’s the latest offering in a long line of important releases by the Anticon label. Wolf’s previous work with Doseone and Odd Nosdam in cLOUDDEAD saw the release of two highly regarded hip-hop albums. We can safely say that when their self-titled 2001 album hit the shelves it really did sound like nothing else out there. No, really. I’m not kidding. Since that time, the individual band members’ subsequent releases have missed those heights (the closest being Doseone’s second album with Subtle, for hero: for fool) but, then again, it’s a difficult task to better perfection.

Why? slugs it out with Subtle for top honours on Alopecia and, while it’s a hard fought battle, I think Wolf has made the better album. As a lyricist, he certainly has the wood on his good friend, Adam Drucker. He is more direct, clever and relies less on stream-of-consciousness and more on creating engaging, technicolour narratives. Like the Mountain Goat’s John Darnielle, Wolf is focussed on detail; the often embarrassing where-and-when of intimate moments is his bread and butter. “Today after lunch/I got sick and blew chunks/All over my new shoes/In the lot behind Whole Foods/This is a new kind of blues,” (‘By Torpedo or Crohn's’). It’s this sort of unguarded willingness to not hide behind rock-cool posturing that makes Wolf and Alopecia such a refreshing proposition. This is not academic lyricism by any stretch of the imagination; it’s far too raw, clunky and earnest for that.

At various points on the album the protagonist is “sucking dick for drink tickets”, “sending sexy SMS’” to his “ex’s new man”, rehearsing for the coffin, playing singles bingo, masturbating in an art museum, “blowing kisses to disinterested bitches” and abusing in a Starbucks bathroom. Since 2005’s Elephant Eyelash, Wolf’s world has not only been turned upside down, it has been thoroughly defiled – the floating, lo-fi, wide-eyed wonderings of wanting “no casket” replaced by Alopecia’s dozen strong death wish. Having said this, Why? are aware of their mortality but not in a moribund manner. The album’s centrepiece, ‘Fatalist Palmistry’ is a perfect example of how they can make lines like, “I sleep on my bed/Cause it’s good for the spine/And coffin rehearsal” sound perfectly natural and matter-of-fact. The song’s cascading country guitar encapsulates that, ‘life might be fucked but it’s okay cause I’ve been here before and, most likely, I’ll be here again’ philosophy. This is a devastatingly honest album that pulls no punches.

“Cheery a/Cheery e/Cheery i/Cheery o/Cheery u” sings Wolf on ‘The Vowels Pt. 2’, the album’s opening, sarcastically caustic, salvo; its pulsating jangle giving way to the ominous acoustic timbre of ‘Good Friday’ as Wolf croons (his voice has dropped a few octaves in the last few years) “I’d rather be dead than call this song how I lost your respect.” The opening four tracks are relentlessly brilliant; the descent during the chorus on “These Few Presidents” is unexpected but perfectly mirrors the turgidity of a rocky relationship before Wolf plants his tongue firmly in cheek: “Even though I haven’t seen you in years/ Yours is a funeral I’d fly to from anywhere.” In the presence of such engaging lyricism it is easy to lose sight of just how brilliantly the band mesh and weave such robust and dynamic arrangements. The instrumentation is so organic that it radiates a warmth, even through the darkest corners of this record.

To sound like no other band currently doing the rounds is not the be all and end all. It helps an album stand out and garner attention from regular record-buying folk and critics alike but it doesn’t mean it’s any better than the new Nickelback album. Why? are an original band in that they don’t rely upon imitation and this is important because it gives the rest of the pack a kick up the arse to help in moving modern music in a forward direction. Alopecia’s sound is difficult to pin down and this is what makes it so appealing; “You’re the only proper noun I need,” sings Wolf and, for the moment, this is the only proper album I need.