To understand the schizophrenic array of styles that Abby Travis effortlessly displays on her third album, Glitter Mouth, peruse her resume and dare yourself to find a pattern there. Beck, the Bangles, KMFDM, Michael Penn, Exene Cervenka, Kathy Valentine, Gibby Haynes...there isn’t a radio station in existence that will program half of those artists on the same playlist, and yet vocalist/bassist Travis finds herself fitting in with each of them with nary a seam showing. On Glitter Mouth, Travis comes off like a dusky-voiced chanteuse with a penchant for Bowiesque glam rock, Eurythmics romance pop, Brecht/Weill dancehall jazz popera, Prince-like funk/rock, slinky trip hop, torchy ’60s R&B and loungey ’20s pop, all of it appointed with contemporary finery but not distractively so. Travis’ partners in this endeavor are equally disparate, from well connected pop-keyboardist-to-the-cult-stars Kristian Hoffman to guitarist Dave Bongiovanni (aka El Vez) to Cocteau Twins svengali Simon Raymonde to hip hop knob jobber Lamont Hyde to L7 shredder Donita Sparks to Meat Puppets front wizard Curt Kirkwood. Even in L.A., you’d be hard pressed to find this cast of characters in the same block, let alone in a single studio and yet here they are, adding individual spices to a wildly eclectic gumbo that Travis has already brought to bubbling perfection. As wide ranging as Glitter Mouth is stylistically, it is Travis’ strong creative presence that umbrellas the whole thing and gives the album a cohesive feel despite its genre hopping composition. Something for everyone? Damn near.
~ Brian Baker
Release date: July 25, 2006
