Girl with Basket of Fruit
Returning with their first album since 2017, the musical version of a Jodorowsky film, Xiu Xiu. Forget was a spectacular melding of electronic, experimental, and pure pop (see "Tonight"). Girl with Basket of Fruit is not that
it...is...not...that
If eldritch horrors had to pick one album to listen to forever, it would be Girl with Basket of Fruit. If the Eyes Wide Shut cult would modernize and listen to contemporary music, they would play Girl with Basket of Fruit. If Adventure Time's Golb, the personification of discord, came to life and passed into the real world, he would glean inspiration from Girl with Basket of Fruit.
But not to continually focus on the weirdness of Xiu Xiu's experimental leanings. This album, while incredibly disturbing and strange, is also filled with moments of beauty: string sections that harmonize effortlessly; Jamie Stewart's vocal performance on "The Wrong Thing" or "Scisssssssors"; or the entirety of album closer "Normal Love," a song that combines a gorgeously simple piano line with a strangely mesmerizing mimicry of Matthew Dear.
But then there's also...well to describe "Mary Turner Mary Turner" with words would be to imply that it might be comprehended by beings that experience time passively.
And then there's the highlight of Xiu Xiu's entire career to this point, "Pumpkin Attack on Mommy and Daddy." The ridiculous name is actually the most normal part of the entire experiment, a horrifying abrogation of reason replaced with Thrill Kill Cult samples and electronics pulled from Ministry's Wax Trax catalog. It is a glorious monolith of chaos that has to be experienced. But beware, it cannot be un-experienced.
Girl with Basket of Fruit is weird--it's REALLY weird--but it's also the most original, most fascinating thing to come out in quite some time.
I promise I'm not Bird Box-ing you, but that's only because you won't need eyes where we're going.
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