There’s an eerie sense of déjà vu accompanying Pearlene’s third album, a tangled and tenacious nine-song set that suggests some long-forgotten psychedelic nugget from an earlier era. It’s manifest in its lumbering blues-tinged ramble and a frayed guitar squall that teeters precipitously on the edge of instrumental indulgence. Opening track “Hossanah!” sounds like a roughshod meeting of the latter day Small Faces and the Kings of Leon, thanks to its wailing organ riffs and turbulent swells. Likewise, “High And Dangerous” emulates the ragged, didactic riffing of Crazy Horse in full stampede. The set includes a pair of covers, most notably Fred Neil’s “Traveling’ Shoes,” but ultimately the dark rumble proceeds unabated. The only exceptions come via the weary, subdued “I Hate The Blues” and the folk-like drift of “The Shot,” but even in those instances, the sense of dread and foreboding is still pervasive, due to the overcast ambiance clouding the proceedings. For Western Violence and Brief Sensuality, its title notwithstanding, will mostly appeal to those with a sentimental spot for those halcyon days of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when sprawling instrumentals and acid implications ruled the newly liberated FM airwaves. It’s in that regard that Pearlene lives up to their name and makes an iridescent impression.
--Lee Zimmerman
