Adult

Some records are pure ear candy, full of great melodies, profound lyrics and life-affirming energy, a slew of songs to be sung on joyous post-midnight jaunts up and down the streets of your hometown while you ponder the meaning of life, love, and happiness. Why Bother? is not one of those records. Furthermore, it goes very far out of its way to let you know that it wouldn’t want to be. Listening to its cold and calculated rhythms, horror movie electronics, and the strategically placed bursts of amelodic noise that occasionally bubble up from the surface, you get the sense that Why Bother? is for the very opposite experience of being trapped inside your own head, stuck with your petty hatreds, your dark impulses, and your mad thoughts. Perhaps it’s not the nicest of experiences, but it’s no less valid.

Detroit wife/husband duo Nicola Luperus and Adam Lee Miller have been making music as Adult. for nearly a decade, having debuted in 1998 with the “Dispassionate Furniture” single and graduated to full length LPs with 2003’s Anxiety Always. They are an electro-punk band in the true sense of the term, writing somewhat cheeky, bile spewing songs that forsake the guitar-bass-drums combo of conventional rock music in favor of synths, drum machines, and all the rhythmic precision of a ticking clock. Though the tempted punk godfather reference is Suicide, Adult. really have more in common with Detroit’s own Stooges and, judging from that group’s more conventional turn on their new record, probably are the current champions in terms of capturing that initial essence of insane minimalism. Those looking for complex electronic soundscapes will not dig this. Repetition is the key word here, from the trance inducing beats to the monotone of Nicola Luperus’ yelps to the abundance of one line choruses.

Another key word here is creepy. Why Bother?’s first and best track is “Red Herring,” a lurching monstrosity with menacing synthesizers that eventually spiral towards complete insanity. Musically, the track falls in line with something horror movie directors like Dario Argento or John Carpenter might come up with, from the chilly atmosphere to the underwhelming feeling of impending doom. Here Luperus’ voice is uncharacteristically restrained, only chiming in here and there for ghostly effect. However, she comes fully alive for “I Feel Worse When I’m With You”, a cheeky expression of absolute annoyance, driven by an aggressive beat and synths that recall Nine Inch Nails’ classic “March of the Pigs” single.

The pointedly titled “Inclined To Vomit” does the aggressive bit a tad better, including moments of pure noise to punctuate Kuperus’ theatrical, over-the-top freak outs. Though Kuperus is one of the group’s most potent weapons, bearing a voice that (whenever it’s not trying to be completely robotic and emotionless) recalls female punk icons like Patti Smith and Kim Gordon, the best moments of Why Bother? tend to be those when the sinister electronics are allowed to do most of the talking. The two part “Importance of Being Folk” attains a decidedly eerie ambience, worthy of an ax murder sequence in any respectable low budget horror film. “Cultivation” sounds like the soundtrack to a video game due to its simplicity, but manages to counter that by being married to shrieking noise that no right-minded game designer would allow to make the final cut. The buzzing static of the concluding “Harvest” is the point where you would think the LP would descend into noisy chaos, but it doesn’t. Rather the accompanying synth lines and sparse drum beats end Why Bother? on a decidedly forlorn, washed out note, perhaps the final comedown from the album’s insanity. If it weren’t for the aforementioned static purring throughout, the song would be almost tranquil.

Why Bother? does have a misstep or two. The punky faux-rock of “You Don’t Worry Enough,” the only song to make prominent use of a guitar riff, is perhaps a bit too much on the generic side, while “Plagued By Fear” doesn’t amount to much more than a decent bass line. In general, the darker songs tend to be more interesting than the electro punk ones, as that sound has become more and more common throughout the underground throughout the last few years and thus has started to become pretty tired. One expects that the next Adult. LP might slip further into total sonic depravity. As of now they’re only part way there.

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