If You Go Away

After hearing the haunting Battle Of Mice album "Day Of Nights", I was a complete Julie Christmas fan. The way she can go from soft-hum to full on scream is absolutely untouchable. "The Bad Wife" is her first solo album and came out a month or so ago. At times it has the same metal punch as Made Out Of Babies but there is a completely new layer that simply makes this stand out.

She screams, she pouts, and spins tales of love in a poetic shape-shifting voice. The album starts off with "July 31st", a slow starting song. Julie Christmas whispers until things come to a crashing stop and the tempo kicks up a few notches - almost to a Made Out Of Babies level. It's alternative yes, but there's a heavy hard-rock/metal edge.

"If You Go Away" continues in this fashion. Even when she sounds innocent, her words are ominous and barbed with pain. "Bow" is one of my favorite tracks. It's violent and the guitar work really blends everything in quite well. If anything, "Bow" almost feels like a preview for new MOOB material.

One of my favorite aspects of Julie Christmas' material is her ability to paint a picture with her words. Everything is clear and visible - a trait not many have.

The album continues powering through a handful of tracks, including the mostly instrumental "Secrets All Men Keep" and and the heavy "Six Pairs Of Feet And One Pair Of Legs".

The most interesting track to me is "A Wigmaker's Widow", one of the final songs. There's a nice rock feel with tinges of cabaret and horns. Her words are just like a whirlwind that keeps your attention for the full four and a half minutes.

"When Everything Is Green" closes things out with another blend of rock/metal. The words sound optimistic one moment and completely horrifying the next. The switch would be jarring 98% of the time, but this is seamless and completely works with the music and general tone.

"The Bad Wife" doesn't have any bad tracks nor does it have filler, just nine tracks of aggressive, emotional alternative music from one of my favorite artists around, Julie Christmas. It's original and sounds like nothing out there. This is easily my pick for non-HC release of the year.

Rising Pulse put this record out, in two different variations - an ugly smudgy looking color mix and a solid, whitish/pink. Honestly, don't sleep on this record; "The Bad Wife" will blow you away in almost every category.