Pros: Fun alternative rock using unconventional instruments
Cons: Sugar, A Hundred Tires, Marooned, Tick Tock, Mr. Goodnight.
The Bottom Line: A must-own for fans of the Deal sisters, otherwise this is still a good album although not as immediately entertaining as some of songs from The Breeders.
lambchops's Full Review: Go to the Sugar Altar by Kelley Deal 6000
The lesser known of two troubled rock and roll sisters, Kelley Deal has been a contributing member of a number of bands including her sister Kim’s own The Breeders. She also pursued her own solo career in the mid 1990’s beginning with 1996’s Go To The Sugar Altar featuring her own vocals and guitar and a number of guest players.
Released under the name of The Kelley Deal 6000, Go To The Sugar Altar was a fair album. It got little exposure in part because the album was released by indie label Nice. Other contributors to the songs were Jesse Roff (horns and percussion), Dave Shouse (bass, guitar, keyboards), Jimmy Flemion (guitar, vocals) and Jason Orris (bass). Despite all of the individuals who lent their talents to Go To The Sugar Altar, the album is essentially a solo debut for Deal.
Plagued by personal battles with addiction and having to live in the shadow of her more famous sister Kim (of Pixies and Breeders fame), Kelley has had nothing but trouble with the rock industry. But, Go To The Sugar Altar proved less pretentious than her sister’s more recent outings. It is, in fact, a more honest follow up to the four successful albums released by The Breeders. But, that said, the album isn’t great. It’s merely average entertainment.
Go To The Sugar Altar [1996] consists of eleven songs amounting to about a half hour of material. Kelley’s guitar and vocals are both distinctive and lend well to the at times unexpectedly experimental sound. Deal also wrote all of the songs (only on occasion calling on other contributors to help out).
Immediately jumping out is the steel drum driven opening track Canyon. The track is enjoyable although at times repetitive. I enjoy Kelley’s wry vocals mixed with the strange instrumentation. She certainly pulls this track off in a style that should have made a bigger splash on the music scene. Consider this…how many artists can successfully incorporate a steel drum into a rock song?
Falling neatly into the amorphous mass of a musical category known as alternative, How About A Hero is also a decent track although not as driving or ultimately entertaining as some of the others. Faintly Hawaiian, the song has appeal focused on Kelley’s tongue-in-cheek vocals and lyrics. Certainly okay, definitely not exceptional.
Trixie Delicious is a strange little acoustic clap-along (literally…there is clapping throughout) that features sometimes electric guitars and vocal harmonies. Kelley yowls “Trixie” while Flemion growls “Delicious.” The track employs a very strange approach to music unlike anything else I’ve ever heard. It is also darned near brilliant with the bizarre instruments and utter lack of percussion except for clapping.
Light and melodic, Dammit begins with Deal’s voice, forcibly angelic, backed with pseudo-meaningful strings. The song then breaks into an all-out rant. I like it, and so should you. It’s one of the songs that make this album more important than most people give it credit. Head of the Cult is also a notable track with snare drums and rim taps mixed seamlessly with Kelley’s raw vocals. Strange at times, the track actually ends up better in the end than you expect it to be in the beginning. Sugar is also a decent track that at times steps over the boundaries into blues. This track could have easily gotten airplay on alternative stations.
The songs that help to sink the album are the overly dark Nice, the overly energetic and strangely punk A Hundred Tires, the melodramatic and badly paced Marooned, the unconventional and not in the least bit fulfilling Tick Tock, and finally the completely useless Mr. Goodnight.
I do enjoy Go To The Sugar Altar more than I expected. It’s a decent track and of some use to former fans of The Breeders. Most of the tracks are some strange version of rock music and most are entertaining and lovely. The album deserves 3.5/5 stars but in this case I’m rounding down to discourage unsure listeners from buying this album. I recommend it to all fans of the Deal sisters and their various endeavors. There are certainly some shining moments of greatness. The Kelley Deal 6000 also went on to release one less appealing subsequent album…Boom! Boom! Boom!
Track Listing:
1. Canyon
2. How About Hero
3. Dammit
4. Sugar
5. Hundred Tires, A
6. Head Of The Cult
7. Nice
8. Trixie Delicious
9. Marooned
10. Tick Tock
11. Mr. Goodnight
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