Skunk Anansie was never genre-bound. Freely incorporating towering metal mayhem, electronic darkness, elegiac, fluttery soul, and the barely contained force of vocalist Skin's presence and politics, the band was forever flailing against the cage of convention.
Skunk Anansie dissolved in 2001, and Skin took a hiatus from music. She has reemerged with
Fleshwounds, an album of broken- (and open-) hearted love songs that, even if it doesn't coil and snap like the most caustic of
Skunk's material, still crackles smartly with Skin's copyrighted singularity. Drawing vocally on the vulnerability in
Skunk Anansie's earthier moments ("Infidelity [Only You]" or "Brazen [Weep]," both from 1996's
Stoosh), Skin here turns in a startlingly honest performance that suggests
Roberta Flack fronting an urbanized version of
Radiohead. "Listen to Yourself" and "Faithfulness" both run on a claustrophobic groove built from junkyard guitar and skittering anti-beats, while Skin sings beautifully over the top about issues not political, but intensely personal. It's obvious that a relationship came and went during her post-
Skunk break;
Fleshwounds is written largely in the first person, and lines like "Love abuse is just a test/Then sad old love songs/Stick the knife in/Deeper everyday" don't necessarily suggest a happy ending. But they're cathartic, and delivered the way one would confide in a close friend, making the album not so dark as it might have been. (
Ben Christophers' warm piano flirting with the beats of tracks like "You've Made Your Bed" helps humanize, too.) If there's a knock on
Fleshwounds, it's this constant convergence of the organic and electronic -- some listeners might be put off by producer David Korsten's preference for squelch and laptop squiggles, sounds that maybe aren't as original as they once were. At the same time, "Don't Let Me Down" features gentle acoustic guitar figures, an understated trap kit, and one of Skin's most delicately raw vocal performances.
Fleshwounds surely won't please everyone, if only because of her previous group's chronic schizophrenia. But Skin deserves credit for revealing a little of the person -- the woman -- behind the bald, booted persona that would have been her legacy. ~ Johnny Loftus