The sticker adorning the front of former Mendoza Line singer Shannon McArdle’s new solo disc Summer of the Whore reads “Shannon McArdle EXPOSED!” The photos on the inside have a sensual, voyeuristic quality. And perhaps even more tellingly, there’s an undercurrent of Fleetwood Mac-style pop throughout the album. For those who may not be familiar with McArdle, she and her former band, The Mendoza Line, split when she and bandmate Timothy Bracy divorced; whether or not Summer of the Whore is, in fact, a tell-all (most indications say it’s an exaggeration), it’s hard to ignore the drama. Softly grooving and sultry opener “Poison My Cup” finds McArdle confessing, “Don’t have to tell me you love me, baby, I’ll still go down.” On the Neko Case-like “Paint the Walls,” a feeling of longing and sadness takes over where th e empty sex left off: “I try to pack up your things, but I just press my face into your sweaters.” But, of course, sadness then leads to more empty sex as she sings in the title track, “All these months since he left me have emptied me out to the core.” Perhaps McArdle is merely playing up her more seamy autobiographical details, or fabricating them outright, but like any hot tabloid story, I just can’t get enough.
--Jeff Terich [August 26, 2008]
