Rating: Yes

Hello June Fool

Thirsty Ear

For the uninitiated, Madder Rose  supplied the blueprint for the shimmer and shake of Beth Orton's first album. The difference, of course, is Billy Cote's wall-of-guitars sound, dropped in the mix when you least expect it. Call it a trademark, his guitar has always suited Madder Rose's slick, stylized sound and is what keeps their albums from becoming too cloyingly sweet for their own good. Hello June Fool, in fact, is the direction Orton should have gone on her second, snoringly boring CD. Instead, Madder Rose stepped in, again, with their trip-hop beats, Cote's hammer-heavy ax and Mary Lorson's soulful voice.

Maybe the band's uncanny ability to mix beauty with mammoth distortion -- while never losing sight of the beat -- is due to hailing from the beautiful concrete palaces of New York, where you can feel both crowded and isolated at the same time. While the band's sound is densely packed for a four piece, it exudes an almost hauntingly hollow, lonely feel like being left alone in a house after your family's left... for good.

Though not nearly as stripped down or straight-forward as their stellar 1993 debut, Bring It On, which will always be their sonic benchmark , Goodbye... is the natural progression for a band that values substance over style, sound over art.

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Published in The Reader, Nov. 11, 1999. Copyright © 1999 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.