“What on earth can this old pirate do?” wonders Trevor Tanner on his new album Eaten By The Sea. The answer is pretty simple: Plenty. Now in his forties, the former singer of The Bolshoi shows on these sixteen numbers that age has done nothing to diminish his energy or his creativity. Not that anyone feared Tanner was slowing down. 2004’s three disc, forty-one song collection Bullish, Bellyache & Belch evinced a man who couldn’t slow down if he wanted to. Brilliant, inventive and ambitious, the triptych served warning that old post punks could remain both relevant and vital. Eaten By The Sea finds Tanner both at his darkest and his most playful. The shuffling pop opener “Sirens” serves as a perfect introduction to Tanner’s world: “I’m the captain,” he sings, which may or may not serve as a source of comfort after he admits he’s, “broken nearly every rule.” Later, “Lemmings” is a sunny gothic lullaby; “Poser’s Curse” suggests a gruffer Mark Knopfler and the self-deprecating drunkard’s lullaby “Pretty Too” might be the catchiest number Tanner’s ever penned. Elsewhere, the story in “Not Sorry” has an almost Charles Dickens feel; the seafaring instrumental “Mal De Mer” sounds like a pirate ship’s house band playing Kurt Weil at knifepoint and, in a surprising move, Tanner recasts The Bee Gees’ “New York Mining Disaster 1941” as “Mr. Jones” and the results are bleak and gorgeous.
--Alex Green [October 5, 2008]
