Always undecided whether to let the singer-songwriter soul prevail (“Love”), the more pop and extroverted one (“Freedom”) or the dark psychedelic attitude (“Through Donkey Jaw”), McMahon dusts off the harsh and unfinished structures of his first albums, for an ambitious and complex record that once again shifts the axis towards psychedelia.
Recorded in complete production autonomy, “Death Jokes” comes after a period full of personal problems (Covid, respiratory complications, significant weight loss, the move to Woodstock, the birth of a son), but also after an important change of record company: from Sacred Bones to Sub Pop.
Electronics are there to mix things up again, an element that, together with the piano, an instrument that McMahon has approached in recent times, takes on a fundamental role in the current sound perspective. The pop turn of “Freedom” had certainly enriched the austere compositional style of the musician, at the same time it had highlighted the limits of a decisive shift towards decidedly more conventional shores.
With “Death Jokes” Amen Dunes shatters the old alchemies without hesitation. From the alienating movements of “Ian” it is clear that even the most linear melodies do not have an easy life, the song is in fact set between two brief instrumental glimpses (the title track and “Joyrider”) which if in part mitigate the heavier and darker tone of the project, on the other hand anticipate some weakly incidental experimental digressions (“Predator” and “Solo Tape”) that infect one of the weakest pages of the album such as “Rugby Child”.
Not particularly excellent but always special, the author's vocal skills are the only real handicap of a successful album, skills that make a fine show of themselves in the pop ballad Beck-style “Boys” or the original electro-dub of “Purple Land”, but they give way just when the songwriting is less conventional and more courageous.
Amen Dunes' new project is heavy and painful even in terms of lyrics, even more crude and not without harsh social denunciations, topics that McMahon dresses now with harmonic and vocal screeches (“Exodus”), now with delicate folk-psych sounds (“Mary Anne”) or sublimates in one of the most successful songs of the album (“I Don't Mind”).
The nine minutes and fifteen seconds of “Round The World” represent the most innovative compositional effort on “Death Jokes”, a bittersweet and solemn crescendo with seductive psychedelic and art-pop features that leaves a firm mark on the songbook of the current year, offering a further key to understanding a project with an adventurous and unconventional nature.
McMahon’s challenge to predictability and routine has just begun and the result is definitely interesting. With “Death Jokes” Amen Dunes rediscovers inspiration and chaos with equal candor and intellectual honesty, thanks to an album that, despite some imperfections, will not leave you indifferent.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
