Ima Robot Forums - Powered by XMB 1.9.12

Or shall I say, contrasts...

From knotmag.com:

Ima Robot Vs. Courtney Love
3.29.2004 Rob Margetta, Dan Miller
The Musical Moron Twins

While you can hear traces of all sorts of delightful bands in Ima Robot, Courtney Love's only apparent influence is Courtney Love.

Drugs are important to rock. Without them, Jim Morrison and the Grateful Dead wouldn't be what they are today (meaning famous, not dead). The eponymous debut of Ima Robot and solo debut by Courtney Love, entitled America's Sweetheart, are two records which are undoubtedly inspired by at least a little bit of chemical dabbling. Ima Robot is a striking band from L.A. led by a high-strung, possibly extraterrestrial lead singer. Meanwhile, Love's new record is a highly personal, bordering on self-obsessed, collection of dirty rockers and ballads.

Rob: I'm always wary when celebrities become self-conscious of their public personae -- it's usually when their careers start to slide. So when I first picked up Courtney Love's new album, with its tongue-in-cheek title, America's Sweetheart, and its whorish-Courtney-with-angel-wings cover art, I was already on guard. And, unfortunately, most of America's Sweetheart is exactly the sort of complacent, by-the-numbers hard rock I expected. Of course, I've never been as enamored of Courtney as many are, so your opinion might be more valid where this album's concerned.

Dan: And when you say "many," I presume you mean "you." It's true, I'm an uncloseted Courtney devotee. As for your comments about Courtney's self-obsession, by that logic, Courtney's previous record Celebrity Skin (with the now broken-up Hole) would have been similarly predictable and boring. That record was dynamic, emotional, raw and unapologetically polished. Courtney was aware of her place in pop culture and used it to push people's buttons. On America's Sweetheart, however, it looks like she's gotten lost in her own self-image. She's still a pretty sharp songwriter, but vocally she's pretty much a mess and it's obvious that she had little to do with the music on the record.

R: The record's production does feel pretty artificial and slipshod -- while there are a few choice tracks ("Hold on to Me," for example), most sound rushed. And I suppose it's possible that some of America's Sweetheart's deficiencies can be ascribed to the lack of the rest of Hole, as singers sometimes lose something when they forgo an actual band and work with studio musicians.

D: Ballads like "Hold On to Me" felt lukewarm to me. For the most part, I think the hardest rocking songs on the album are the best. The first single, "Mono," and "But Julian, I'm a Little Bit Older than You" are places where Courtney's howl seem to work. On "Julian" especially, she works well with the roar of the guitars and an awesome gurgling bass. The funereal "Life Despite God," on the other hand, is one of the worst vocal performances I've ever heard. She sounds so drugged up, you can just envision her slumped over the mic stand with a spilled bottle of Smirnoff on the floor and a syringe hanging out of her arm. She wails and screeches out of tune. Perhaps its artsy, but it's also unlistenable.

R: Ehh... Some of the past Courtney Love songs that have done it for me centered around her screaming, most notably "Violets." But while her scream sounded like a primal release on previous albums, Courtney seems to be screaming out of the lack of anything better to do on newer tracks like "Mono." Anyway, let's shove Courtney aside for a moment, and take a look at Ima Robot. They're certainly hard -- yet they're also very tight, very controlled, and they know the value of lighter material, such as their "Song #1."

D: The troubling thing for me about Ima Robot was trying to figure out whom they sounded like. Their grungy, sci-fi, space glam rock sounded so familiar it was driving me crazy to figure out their influences. But I guess, in the end, they draw most of their influence from David Bowie and British glam rockers. Singer Alex Ebert sounds like an impassioned version of Terrence and Phillip from the South Park cartoons, with his spastic, helium-filled babbling. But I am really pleasantly surprised by Ima Robot. I really wasn't expecting much out of them except for some fun, oddball pop anthems. Instead, they proved that they're like Bowie in that there's real art underneath the weirdo showmanship.

R: If there is one thing that annoys me about Ima Robot at times, it is Alex Ebert's vocals, which remind me of Rush's Geddy Lee, one of my least-favorite singers of all time. But I also hear the different influences you describe, and they give Ima Robot a distinctly cool sound. Songs like "Let's Talk Turkey" combine heavy guitars with bouncy bass and synthesizers. It saves them from becoming a dreary rock band. I like that.

D: And they also have this weird melancholy and angsty feeling underneath it all. The chorus of the otherwise paranoid rant "A is for Action" contains this really tender piano that adds a lot of emotion to the song. With all of its dramatic presence, Ima Robot really has a lot going on. My favorites, beside "A is for Action," are "12=3" and "Alive." Unlike Courtney's album, these songs are highlights on a consistently strong album rather than a few listenable songs on an otherwise dreary record.

R: I'm a bit torn, though, in judging whether Ima Robot is a throwback to 80s-like experimental rock, or if they're something new. While songs like "Dynomite" have a very modern, punk-influenced energy, "Let's Talk Turkey" and "Philosophofee" are sparser, punctuated by little electronic touches and vocals with echo effects -- almost like something the Cars might have done if they had a bit more edge. But Ima Robot's various influences and their difficult-to-define product is another advantage they have over Courtney. While you can hear traces of all sorts of delightful bands in Ima Robot, Courtney Love's only apparent influence is Courtney Love.

D: I don't think Courtney's ever been a powerful force musically. She can barely play guitar, but she looks pretty cool holding one. Her biggest asset, aside from her sometimes-powerful pipes, is her personality. She's a lot like Madonna actually. She stirs up controversy when she feels like it and sings along to songs played by better musicians than she. America's Sweetheart isn't a horrible album (although songs like "Life Despite God" make me hesitate in saying that) but it's not a memorable one. It's just decidedly average. Celebrity Skin's anthems like its title track and "Malibu" make it an example of what Courtney can do under the right conditions. In this case, she seems to be more concerned about painkillers and her own celebrity rather than singing coherently.

R: Agreed. America's Sweetheart has a lot of noise to it, but not much art. I think Courtney's hit the point where her issues with drugs and the custody of her child have eclipsed her musical career. Anyone looking for a newish Courtney-Love-like album of quality should avoid America's Sweetheart and instead check out The Distillers' Coral Fang. Ima Robot, on the other hand, manages to combine both noise and art on their album. From its first track, "Dynomite," it's clear that Ima Robot is filled with music that is not only damned interesting, but accessible as well. Now, if the guys in the group could only get decent haircuts...

D: Before we wrote this review I was prepared to love America's Sweetheart, but Ima Robot's debut is the far superior album. Both have some pretty sharp songwriting -- Ima Robot's apocalyptic rants versus Courtney's balls-out confessionals -- but Courtney's downright sloppy vocals combined with her plastic arrangements don't make for a compelling listen. Ima Robot keep the listener engaged for both the cinematic spectacle of their performance, as well as the melodies and emotion.