Released on 15 May 1990 "Bloodletting" was the third studio album by US alternative rock band Concrete Blonde, the album marks a shift for the band toward gothic rock. It features guest appearances by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Wall of Voodoo's Andy Prieboy. The album spawned four singles "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)", the hit single "Joey", "Caroline" & "Tomorrow, Wendy".
According to lead singe Johnette Napolitano on the album: It was pretty miserable. It's not a happy little disc. We had a string of bad luck and Bloodletting was the tail end of it. A particularly bad relationship. It had never
happened to me until I was 29 years old. I had a hard time getting over
it. So, it's not a happy record, but I could do two things: I could make
a self-indulgent record, which is what this is, or I could lock up all
these songs in a closet and do something that wasn't sincere. This will
never happen again, this record.
It was an interesting time between the end of the 1980s and early 1990s before grunge revolution, there were plenty of
underground delights to dig up, but the majority of the mainstream
airwaves was hardly inspiring, and of those rare moments were Concrete Blonde's "Joey" was one
of those songs. With Johnette Napolitano on
vocals and bass and former Sparks bassist James Mankey on guitar, plus a
succession of drummers, Concrete Blonde cooked up a sweetly sulfurous
blend of goth, punk, and alternative rock, shot through with
Napolitano's knack for indelible hooks.
The LA-based band's first two albums made a little noise in the alt.rock
realm but Concrete Blonde was still a mystery to the mainstream and they still now in certain ways but when "Joey" was released as a single. It's almost tempting
to call the tune a power ballad,
but the haunting track is miles away from the stadium-rock that label
sometimes implies, with Napolitano
slipping seamlessly from a bittersweet murmur to a mournful wail in all
her full-throated, heart-on-sleeve glory.
The single became a bona fide pop hit, lodging itself in the Top 20 and
hurtling Concrete Blonde into the national spotlight. A huge credit on this definitely belongs to producer Chris Tsangarides, who gave
the band just enough sheen to stand out without sacrificing any of their
edginess. Tsangarides is best known as a metal producer, but he’d
become conversant with the alternative world through work with the likes
of Killing Joke and Lords of the New Church. But there’s a lot more to Bloodletting than the big single. The
album-opening title track (subtitled "The Vampire Song") is a gem in terms of foreboding goth-blues riffing, necromantic lyrics, and gang-vocal
chorus make it as memorable as its hit-bound sibling, albeit in a
completely different way. Meanwhile, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck lends his mandolin to the wonderfully witchy, “Darkening of the Light."
With "The Sky Is a Poisonous Garden," in terms of both pace and
incision. It’s Bloodletting's strongest link to the band's
earlier punk roots, but it also sets up the album's opening hat trick
by leading into the moody mists of "Caroline." Napolitano digs in on a more visceral level too. In the imaginary
museum of alt.rock history, her riff on "Days and Days" ranks right up
alongside "Blood and Roses" by The Smithereens and "Cannonball" by The
Breeders as an indelible opening bass lick. But at least it might have prepped you for the tragic beauty of the
closer, "Tomorrow, Wendy." Written by Wall of Voodoo’s Andy Prieboy,
it's a bit of tragic beauty from the height of the AIDS crisis,
lamenting a victim’s imminent passing.
It's curious you know, because just three months after Bloodletting's release, Concrete Blonde covered a song from Leonard Cohen's landmark I’m Your Man album, scoring a hit with "Everybody Knows" such an interesting and incredible cover version included from the soundtrack of Pump Up the Volume. Which should be included in Bloodletting the album But at that very moment the band had already prove their ability to shine up the darkness a little and make people love it.
According to critics, this album were more deeper and focused that its predeccesor, and of course "Joey" was the key piece track that shone amongst everything.
Bloodletting Track List:
1. Bloodletting (The Vampire SOng)
2. The Sky Is A Poisonous Garden
3. Caroline
4. Darkening Of The Light
5. I Don't Need A Hero
6. Days And Days
7. The Beast
8. Lullabye
9. Joey
10. Tomorrow, Wendy
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