MASKED
SUPERSTAR
Beautified
for sound
CD,
Vaunted
As a rule, the more unexpectedly a record is delivered as a promotional
copy to my door, the worse it is. What I do, and this is of course one of
the many reasons to keep on doing this webzine, is to wait for the exception
to the rule. And “Beautified for sound” by Masked Superstar is just
that. How does a record from a small label in Virginia, USA make it here? I
have no idea, but I am glad it did, because this is a really good record. It
compiles 16 snappy songs into 35 minutes that range between
lo-fi-homerecording and guitar-riff-heavy stompers reminding me of Dan
Stuart or even the Eels.
Home-recording and lo-fi might be the angle-points around which the sound
revolves, at least that is the first impression. Not only do the recordings
seem to be home-made, also the whole manufacturing and distribution, cloaked
under the moniker of Vaunted records, feels home-based. I like that.
And I like the fact even more, that you start to forget all this with
repeated listenings. There are various points that make the
home-made-atmosphere start to dissolve. First, the sound is really
top-quality for home-recording (and makes me wonder, if it really is…).
Second, you don’t handle the jewel-case of the CD so much any more,
because the cover looks better, if not inspected too closely, I am afraid.
Third – a very important one – the songs have stomped out a place in
your heart and you’ll really like them. Fourth, there is a full
3-people-band playing, sometimes even including percussions and I think I
heard a violin as well. Fifth, the album keeps up a level of quality
throughout all songs and restrains itself to 35 minutes of length. Whereas a
lot of home-recorded albums tend to doodle off into outer space, taking full
effect of the possibility of 75 minutes of music on a CD and boring the
listener to hell and back in-between with pointless, faded and loose ends.
Not here. Masked Superstar keep their songs tight and to the point,
sometimes revolving solely around a single, beautiful melody or chord-change
/ harmony, e.g. in the party-stomper “Hang On Sloppy” (what are those
sounds in the background? A video-game?) or the drunken jangle of “The
Christmas Pie”. Quick to the point, hit and back out seems to be the
strategy of songwriting here. Obvious with 16 songs in a little over half an
hour and not being punkrawk to the core. Well, they have put the more
dynamic, faster and distorted songs up front, which gives the first third of
“beautified for sound” an almost “garage-punkish” feeling. Later on,
there are more acoustic guitars and more pensive, laid-back tunes. But all
in good measure, no emotive long-windedness and a few more happy songs are
also found later on into the record, e.g .the almost straightforward
happiness of "Special Lady" or "Senor Attitude". Anyway,
one of my favorite tracks of "beautified for sound" is one of
these slower tunes. "Naughty Freightened", about the singer shying
away from doing anything to get close to his beloved one, because he is
superstitiously afraid of destroying everything before it has even started.
I feel sympathy for people who are their worst enemy all by themselves,
because this is a lesson I had to learn myself.
Nevertheless, even though there is all this straightforwardness and
consequent execution of great things with small means, Masked Superstar
still show a lot of weirdness. Good weirdness, as in songwriter-strangeness
and please think Eels or Violent Femmes, if you want to. Check “The liquor
stars”, a song that features an iguana and is maybe only understandable if
you are intoxicated on the same chemicals as the songwriter was. Or “Sucky
Waves”, where I have no idea what it is all about.
