Ugly
Rude, rude, rude rock ‘n’ roll from Down Under that puts you in a benevolent chokehold on track one and doesn’t let up until the end. (One writer said that Tongues is what Hole is supposed to sound like and I’d go so far to say that Tongues is what more contemporary rock should sound like.). It’s music for beautiful people in dark places and dark people looking for a beautiful place to escape to. Wrapped in a wash of smoldering, artful guitars and graceful, painful lyrics, each of these songs has a place in your life, each one speaks to some truth, whether known or unknown and all of these songs, when put together, will give you reason enough to hang on until the bitter end. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Jedd Beaudoin - Copper Press
Do you like your rock and roll heavy? Do you like it with a strut? Do the two need to be mutually exclusive? The answer to that last question is no and the proof is Tongues' new disc Ugly. Tongues hail from Australia and quite honestly, if Elastica and Black Sabbath had a bastard child it would sound like Tongues. That's actually not a bad thing. In fact, it's a great combination. Beginning with the sludgy strut of "Peculiar", singer Cate Dahl actually begins the song with a taunting, "Na na na" over a distorted bassline. It's so thick you need wading pants to get through the groove, but it moves well.
"Velveteen" has a groove that will immediately suck you in and have you singing along. This album is phenomenal in what it does. There is very little range as far as styles go. What you hear on song one is pretty much what you're going to get for the whole album, but it works well. Amazingly, the album doesn't become a wash and blend together. Each song stands on it's own for different reasons. "Velveteen" has the singable chorus. "Dead Man Walking" has the driving beat. "Dazed" has the 90's rock vibe to it. "Something Passionate" feels like manic punk.
The differences are minute but they're there and they really make the album enjoyable. Overall, Tongues debut comes at a time when there's not a lot of this sound out there. It's smart, heavy and amazingly flexible and you could do a hell of a lot worse than to pick this up.
Cary - MusicMisfits - 3.5 / 5
Tongues hail from Australia and they rock way harder than the Vines or Silverchair. This fabulous foursome was born out of two people, recording in their bedroom, then commanded to unleash their Veruca Salt-inspired rock unto the world. Tongues hits hard musically, delivering grunge-era rock anthems, a hint of stoner rock, with slinky and sexy vocals courtesy of Kate Dahl. Highlights are the rocking romp of “Do It Again” which has guitar driven QOTSA-esque music with vocals that are reminiscent of a sexed up Kim Shattuck of the Muffs. The fuzz bass anthem “Go Your Way” has dirty guitars; churning and chomping away in one ear with noodling feedback in the other that explode into a chorus that could easily come from Nirvana’s Nevermind. To put it bluntly, there’s nothing ugly about Ugly.
3.5 / 5 - News-4U Website
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