A GREAT ONE

Oftentimes musicians I'm working with ask me about my favorite albums. Usually I stumble a bit, trying to remember what they are, and inevitably I say something like "Kilroy Was Here," then realize an hour later that I missed a few.

Well, "Star" by Belly is one of them.

This album is a piece of pure neo-post punk pop rock, served up in 1993 with a big steaming hunk of Tanya Donelly, who came into her own as a member of Throwing Muses but really shines on this record, her debut album with Belly. She redefines the role of the dark, brooding rocker as filtered through the pop sensibility of the alternately dreamy and dark (but still pretty and sweet) singer/guitarist, and it works perfectly.

It's truly a record, meant to be listened to as a whole, starting with a gradual introduction to the themes and mood - "Someone To Die For," a lamentation for a "poor thing" without a sister to "stand on one tiptoe in hell for," and "Angel":

"Give the Moon to me, please", I said to God,
"It's only fair."
Instead he sent three angels
to move the river.
So now it flows by my house.
So now it goes by my house.

Then we get hit with the first real scene, "Dusted."

Baby's playing dead in the cellar,
Gave her water just got paler.
Grass stains, backburns, she's a screamer,
She's just dusted, leave her.

The guitars are heavy - not metal, but weighty, and Tanya's voice, multi tracked and harmonized (as it is throughout the record) has just enough sweet self awareness to draw you in close - but not too close. Like a Siren she calls, then whispers deliciously twisted fairy tales in your ear.

Next is "Every Word," with the slowest pop beat you'll ever hear, then "Gepetto," with the guitar/bass/drums pump on the prechorus...

And if you bore me,
You lose your soul to me.

Tanya goes on to show us that all's not well in suburbia:

So that kid from the bad home
Came over my house again.
Decapitated all my dolls.

Up next is "Witch," another slow, somber one, with some great vocal delay and slide guitar, before they launch into "Slow Dog," my personal favorite.

Maria, carry a rifle
Maria, carry a dog on her back
that dog is hit again
that slow dog is hit again
with his see through skin
the kind of skin you can see through
he's shot again
he's shot again
he's shot
Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah!
He's shot again...

The melody is great, the "ah, ah, ah, ah"'s on the chorus grab you by the throat. This one makes me play air guitar.

Next it's "Low Red Moon," then "Feed the Tree" (a college radio hit), with it's verse about Baby Silvertooth...

This little squirrel I used to be
Slammed her bike down the stairs
They put silver where her teeth had been
Baby silver tooth, she grins and grins

another verse:

This old man I used to be
Spins around, around
Around the tree
Silver baby, come to me
I'll only hurt you
In my dreams

That's some dark shit...

"Full Moon, Empty Heart" and "White Belly," then "Untogether," a song I recently covered. This one is all out of tune acoustics, and the lyrics are great.

I was friendly with this girl
Who insisted on touching my face
She told outragious stories
I believed them
Till the endings were changing from endings before
She's not touching me anymore

Untogether
I couldn't help her
I got hard
You can try your whole life
But you can't save the unsavably untogether

"Star" and "Sad Dress" are up next, and it all wraps up with "Stay," sweet and sad:

Stay
oh oh oh oh stay
Soloman dives for that big dusky pearl
Soloman sighs he knows he's older than me
Sleeps with the fishes soon.
Stay
oh oh oh oh stay...

It's not time for me to go
It's not time for me to go
It's not time for me to go.

Sadly, it was time to go. Belly's follow up ("King") didn't quite channel the emotion and depth of "Star," and Tanya went solo ("Love Songs For Underdogs"). But this was the quitessential college rock album with a few more dark shadows in the corners, one that aged very well.