Shannon McArdle was a member of the celebrated indie rock group
the Mendoza Line until she parted ways with her husband and bandmate Timothy Bracy, and
McArdle's first solo album, 2008's Summer of the Whore, made it clear the breakup was anything but cordial. Four years later,
McArdle is still working out her issues on her second album,
Fear the Dream of Axes, but if her ire has mellowed little with time, she's able to discuss her feelings about her ex (and the complexities of relationships in general) with intelligence, imagination, and no small degree of mordant wit. If you could split the difference between Exile in Guyville-era
Liz Phair and
Dorothy Parker, you might get a sense of
McArdle's approach as a lyricist, and while she's more concerned with metaphor and inward gazing than either of them, "I only give haircuts to the ones I love or the ones I'd do/Do you ever pause to think, ever wonder which one are you?" is a line either might be happy to claim as her own.
McArdle's delivery is as powerful as her lyrics, and the mingling of her lovely, ethereal vocals with the pithy, cutting lyrics on "Our Kind" is a bold conceit that's disquietingly effective. As on her first album,
McArdle recorded
Fear the Dream of Axes with help from fellow
Mendoza Line alumnus Adam D. Gold, and the music and production are every bit as rich and distinctive as
McArdle's lyrics; while her melodies have a tendency to meander a bit on longer tracks like "Adult Rated," "The Chase Scene," and "Decalogue," at its best this is indie pop with real vision, and the album sounds just as ambitious and clever as it reads. However bad
McArdle's marriage to Bracy may have been, so far she's gotten two powerful albums out of it, and
Fear the Dream of Axes is as distinctive and challenging as anything you'll hear this year; with luck,
McArdle will find new themes to tackle on album three that she can approach with the same dour wit she revels in here. ~ Mark Deming