Wonderful Rainbow by Lightning Bolt
Style: Noise Rock, Experimental Rock
Release: 2003
Length: 41 min.
Round: Noise Rock
This is a very strange album, and very unique. Like Treasure by Cocteau Twins, it uses its vocals as an instrument, making them hard to hear and rarely showing up to actually say something as opposed to Cocteau Twins' gibberish “texture.” I did not become aware of this until after the second track.
Upon the first note, I became aware of the album's complexity. I was a little worried when “1001 Albums You Need to Hear” cited the band as “the most vicious drum 'n' bass band.” I don't generally like super rough music, and I'm never been a fan of noise rock (Dinosaur Jr. is one of my fave bands, though). But something about “Hello Morning's” complication made it seem like an art. Was it the emotion? The build-up? It was almost like avant-garde jazz (of course, the band is known to be influenced by Sun Ra). Then came “Assassins” and I immediately understood the art behind their viciousness. They are complex and artistic with their screeching at the top of their guitars' strings. However, a huge flaw in the song is how I can barely hear the vocals. I mean, what the hell is with that? I really hope that isn't an occurrence throughout the whole album, because that would seriously get on my nerves. If they re-recorded this song so that I could hear the singer more clearly, that would make the song perfect. Still, I commend them for their clear artistic ability to use screeches so well in a manner I can tolerate, especially for their very brutal take on noise. Their next track is “Dracula Mountain,” which trades a slight bit of their complexity for a lot of catchiness. And the vocals seem to be an instrument rather than vocals, which is good for the fact that the lyrics are still hard to hear. The song has a second part with a much faster pace and a slightly creepy guitar solo that fits the title well.
Next comes the track “2 Towers.” The track begins with a simple, but gripping drum solo, and then releases an avant-garde experience of distorted guitars. But the track itself (for most if it) isn't as complex. In fact, despite being pretty good, it's lame in comparison. However, the drumming gets very complex. But I feel they are slightly drowned out by the guitars. It continues on into a long solo almost similar to an electronic track. You read me right. Almost similar. It's a reminder of electronic in its own way due to its composition. It's a good track, but it should be shorter. “On Fire,” (which is a cool title” starts out with odd whistling, and then goes into a dramatic guitar solo and some screaming. Obviously, it makes more use of art than the last track. It goes back into prog-rock style complexity and never ceases to be catchy.
Next is “Crown of Storms” which uses its simplicity in a complex manner, an impressive feat backed up by a high-pitched, Eddie Van Halen style riff similar to Eruption. Eventually, it goes back into hard-to-here vocals drowned out by static production. It does this for about five minutes. “Longstockings” is much softer, and uses another repetitive, but not very tiring, guitar solo. It's acoustic this time, and it uses drowned vocals as an instrument again. Next is the title track, “Wonderful Rainbow,” which lasts more than a minute. It';s generally soft,l and kinda weird, taking an acoustic guitar and playing a simple little rhythm throughout. Next comes “30,000 Monkeys.” It's built upon a very fast paced guitar and increasingly complex drums. It soon gets so noisy its sloppy. “
uel in the Deep” is next, and it starts out with a Gothic set of screechy guitars. It's built upon these and hard drumming. The song itself gets increasingly noisy.
The album is somewhat strange, unique, noisy, and quite complex. I think as far as noise rock goes, this is definitely one of the better albums. Overall, 90/100. I'd vote it off sooner if some of the better noise rock was on the list, like Sister or a Dinosaur Jr work. Instead I'm introduced to 8 bands I've never heard of, so I have a lot to do for the noise rock. So, this may or may not get voted off soon.