Chavez
"Ride The Fader" CD (Matador)
I feel bad discussing this album in terms of rock power, given the negative connotations that phrase carries since Billy Corgan became infatuated with it and started masturbating to its vision, but "Ride The Fader" is one of the most mindfuckingly astonishing albums in recent memory; all crunch riffs, drenched in melody and distortion and Matt Sweeney's plaintive voice. Maybe it's easier to understand this album in terms of a relationship - parts of it are like the euphoric first days, weeks, months. Then parts of it get wistful, wanderlust setting in. Then there's the rest - hurt, blinded, bleeding. But "Ride The Fader" is also reassuring, comforting in its narcotic riffs and soothing. It's a warm blanket and a cup of hot cocoa with a dash of arsenic thrown in to kill the pain one last time.