Daily Secretions From A Poisonous Toad

Electric Six “(It Gets) (A Little) Jumpy”

It seemed to me that Electric Six had been in a bit of a creative rut for their past few records, an understandable result of their intense self-imposed album-and-tour-every-year grind. But their new one, Bride of the Devil, brings them back to a peppier, bolder sound more like their mid-‘00s peak. (Yes, you read that right – I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being the Master and Flashy are their best LPs as far as I’m concerned.)

“Jumpy” is the one that sounds like a hit, or at least a hit in a world in which there was a lot of money behind this band. There’s some superficial similarity to the Pixies in the hard/soft dynamics and the contrast of acoustic guitar and a vaguely Latin lead line, but the chorus soars in a way that’s very particular to Dick Valentine in faux arena rock mode. The lyrics, as ever, are a treat – it’s mostly about a guard dog that’s been trained to kill, and there’s a terrific goof on both Boy George and Radiohead that’s only just a lead up to a very literal “karma is a bitch” punchline.

Buy it from Bandcamp.