David Cronenberg's Wife – 'Hypnagogues' review
Hypnagogues is frequently reminiscent of some fairly terrible albums – the cheap, tinny sound of pre-fame Pulp, the crass Gothicism of the first Horrors LP, the frankly horrendous musicianship of various unlistenable Pogues and Fall records. But, despite itself, Hypnagoges has a curiously charming quality that repays repeat listens – it takes its shambling demeanour and makes a virtue of it, and Tom Mayne’s reedy, nasal voice becomes strangely affecting by the time Desperate Little Man arrives two thirds of the way in, and the final four songs are excellent little vignettes.
Hypnagogues is far from brilliant, but at its peaks, as on the sardonic, nihilistic opener Sweden and the blistering, hissing Body To Sleep With, the world created by David Cronenberg’s Wife is deliciously dark and compelling, full of tension and spook, bile and bite.
7/10
