Though
Lee Ranaldo and Spanish multi-instrumentalist and producer
Raül Refree collaborated several times prior to
Names of North End Women, this is the first release on which they share billing. It's a change that reflects the album's new perspective on their music. Both musicians are known for their guitar mastery:
Ranaldo's work with
Sonic Youth and on his own redefined the guitar's role in alternative rock as well as avant-garde music;
Refree combines experimental rock and flamenco in equally innovative ways. For most of
Names of North End Women, however, they create a space where they can challenge themselves and find the intersections between intimacy, mystery, poetry, experimental music, and pop. To that end, they set aside their guitars for much of the album and use other instruments just as expressively.
Ranaldo and
Refree bring in chromatic percussion, samples, and found sounds that add fascinating textures to their music while remaining true to their reputations for challenging themselves. Even on relatively guitar-heavy tracks like "Words Out of the Haze," insistent marimbas and buzzing electronics provide an eerie prologue to its swirling acoustic figures and blazing electric solos. On "The Art of Losing," the duo take the psychedelic transcendence of Between the Times and the Tides and
Electric Trim in an adventurous electro-pop direction with glitchy effects and ecstatic female vocals that echo the song's message of losing one's self to become part of something greater.
Refree and
Ranaldo begin
Names of North End Women with some of the most accessible versions of its striking juxtapositions. At once prickly and dreamlike, "Alice, Etc." is a standout, questioning reality with warping tones and the beat poetry cool in
Ranaldo's spoken-word vocals. "New Brain Trajectory," which contrasts cut-up surrealism with drones that morph from comforting to confrontational, maintains its emotional intensity from start to finish. As the album progresses, the duo take routes less traveled, with songs like the equally harsh and poignant "Humps" reflecting its more abstract territory. At times,
Ranaldo and
Refree threaten to recede too far into their music's mysteries, but when they reconnect with their listeners on "At the Forks"' glowing warmth, it's easy to hear why they thought this album was significant enough within their bodies of work to be billed as a joint effort; at its best,
Names of North End Women is a beautiful creative rebirth. ~ Heather Phares