REVIEW: Consolidated Dropped (Sol 3 Records)
- Jon Steltenpohl
Well, as the title of the album says, Adam Sherburne's Consolidated has finally been Dropped . Given his moral conflicts with being part of the music industry, it's amazing that he lasted for 4 major label albums before seeking indie refuge. On Dropped , Sherburne goes farther towards the 'band' sound of Business of Punishment and drifts farther from the dance sound that made their debut, The Myth of Rock , a success. Business of Punishment, while not a strict dancefest, was at least groove-able, but Dropped is dark and festering. Somewhere along the line, Sherburne decided to cop a few chords from Jimi Hendrix and Muddy Waters, and the result is that Dropped is an attempt at retro hardcore that only sporadically finds its groove.
Not that the music has ever really been Sherburne's focus. Instead, Consolidated has been and remains a force for political action and for venting whatever else is on Sherburne's mind. Pro-woman, vegetarian, pro-abortion, anti-war, pro-gay, anti-racist, pro-environment, and anti-music industry have been just a few of the labels Sherburne has chosen for himself. Their web page (http://www.sol3records.com) links you to the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, the Animal Rights Resource Site, and a site of links called "Working for Justice...Ending Violence."
On this album, the focus is on male domination and abuse and apparently, a break-up of Sherburne's marriage. The result is a slightly confusing mix of songs that swing from a lovesick guy with "a hole in his heart" to an incest perpetrator. In other words, there's not a lot of love on this album. Sherburne excels when he focuses directly on abuse.
In "Recovered Memory (the perp pt.1)" and "Why doesn't he stop (the perp pt.2)", incest and domestic violence get dissected in the trademark Consolidated way. Sherburne personifies the abused and then angrily lambastes the perpetrator. In "Recovered Memory", Gloria Steinam adds spoken word ("one in three girls and one in four boys will be sexually assaulted before they reach the age of eighteen"), and, in "Why doesn't he stop", an abused woman speaks candidly about her experiences and fear. The song ends with another woman stating, "the question is not 'Why doesn't she just leave?', the question is, 'Why doesn't he just stop?'.
Like most of Sherburne's statements, they are powerful and evoke strong emotions. Unfortunately, on Dropped, these two tracks are the exception. Instead, there are clunkly lines like, "You know it's funny when the A.C.L.U. can be confused with Operation Rescue. / Don't get me wrong I'm real happy for all of the pimps and klansmen they're saving / but that system is caving in."
Ultimately, this is what makes Dropped weaker than previous Consolidated albums. The change from dance band to music band is nothing compared to Sherburne's lack of focus on his own agendas. When he's focused on a target (wife beaters and child abusers), he really gets in your head and forces you to consider your own morality, but when he drifts from that, Consolidated just becomes another band.
