"Losing Teeth", the newest CD from Milwaukee's The Scarring Party, seems to be following a trend of established bands releasing a remarkably great album well into their career (see also recent releases by Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys, The Peculiar Pretzelmen and Rasputina).
Obviously this is a trend I support.
On this new release The Scarring Party remains the fundamentally same band they have been for two previous CDs. They still take fracture vaudevillian jazz and marry it to wicked sick and funny lyrics, they're still dark and talented. Their basic sound remains unchanged.
And yet "Losing Teeth" seems to up their game a bit. Perhaps it's the production: everything is sharp and clear, each instrument making itself known while working in harmony with the others. Yet this crisp production hasn't polished the band's weirdness away.
Perhaps it's a matter of confidence. One of the best things about being an audience is that we don't have to go through the painful creation process, we just get the amazing end result. The songs on "Losing Teeth" sound effortless, The Scarring Party exudes talent and confidence on this collection.
In the end it doesn't matter how they got to this point, just that they did.
So I have to be just and Highly Recommend this CD.
