Plague Songs
Issue #30
Various Artists (4AD)
By Elizabeth Rhodes
Published: December 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
It has been too long. There hasn’t been a major recording dedicated to the 10 biblical plagues since Metallica’s “Creeping Death” in 1984. Fortunately, Plague Songs resurrects our favorite fleas, ticks, boils, and rivers of blood from the book of Exodus with the help of a jaw-dropping fleet of indie rock royals, a couple of whom are up to the holy task, but most of whom are just confused by it.
British arts organization Artangel commissioned songs from Rufus Wainwright, Stephin Merritt, Imogen Heap, Cody ChesnuTT, and others to form the soundtrack to a live recreation of the Israelites’ biblical flight from Egypt. The event, held last September near Dover, a main immigration point in England, was intended to promote social equality and tolerance.
Brian Eno is the most successful at bringing his plague to life. By layering samples of Robert Wyatt buzzing, Eno creates a gushing, and oddly serene, swarm of flies. Wainwright delivers an equally gorgeous, acoustic guitar-driven blues song about the death of his cousin that features vocals by yet another talented sister. Merritt takes the lice and ticks to the disco and Heap takes the locusts to a rave that sounds way too similar to Frou Frou’s “Let Go.” Scott Walker’s “Darkness,” with its high-pitched shrieking choir, is the album’s excruciating low point.
Plague Songs may make record buyers curious, and some may even track down a copy. But for the most part, Wainwright fans will download his song, Laurie Anderson fans will download hers, and so on, which is probably for the best.
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