Ken Mode’s NERVE starts off like this:
“Oh, hello there.”
Then the drums come in and lead singer Jesse Matthewson starts yelling, “The German businessman can certainly be distinguished by always wearing a ponytail with his suit. The German businessman commands your attention, when he speaks out loud, the whole world goes on mute.”
I’m not sure just what to make of the lyrics because they remind me of something a much more angry Cake might have put out in the mid-2000s. But there’s a definite blending of pop and the more angry aesthetics of hardcore or punk in NERVE.
The interesting thing is that, despite its simple verse / chorus structure, “The German Businessman” is just as, if not more, catchy than a whole slew of modern pop songs. There’s just a whole lot more angst behind it.
The track that follows, “Let’s Get Divorced,” is just as angst-ridden and loud, but not at all as catchy. None of the would-be pop elements of the album’s opener are retained in “Let’s Get Divorced.” But that said, the instrumental loses almost all of its straightforward hooks in favour of overly energetic drum fills and growling vocals which toe the line between Zack De La Rocha-like screams. (You know the ones, like at the end of “Bullet In the Head” where you can feel his vocal chords just coming apart at the seams.) But for all its unrelenting in-your-face presence, “Let’s Get Divorced” has none of the contrast that made the record’s first track so compelling. Something that one of the later tracks on the record, “Absolutely Not” recovers, but not by much.
A screeching guitar fill coupled with an interlude that builds tension up by way of a surprisingly danceable bass line that stays around just a little longer than it’s welcome gives listeners just the reprieve in tension that they need, the opportunity to catch their breath before a series of three demos (and I’m unclear as to why they earned the “demo” moniker, given that they’re just as noisy and dissatisfied and energetic as the previous four tracks, if not less refined) blast away any semblance of tranquility listeners might have managed to accrue over that brief, bass-laden respite on “Absolutely Not.”
And it’s the demos that undo this album’s appeal, because although the underlying guitar riff on “Why Don’t You Just Quit — Demo” is just hands-down a beautifully executed angry little thing (and the rest of the track generally seems more complete than the two previous demos), it still feels as if it doesn’t have the same cohesiveness of the record’s front end.
That said, NERVE turned out to be much more abrasive than its bright cover implied, but if KEN Mode are seeking to make their listeners nervous (or more appropriately, anxious) they’ve definitely put together a collection of tracks that succeed in doing just that.
