Donate
  • About
  • Staff
  • Advertise
  • Privacy
Search
News
Opinions
Sports
Classifieds
Comics
BMA
Events
Subscribe

Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Print Archive

Eastern Echo
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinions
  • Comics
  • Podcast
  • BMA
  • Events
  • Classifieds
  • Search
  • News
  • Sports
  • Opinions
  • Comics
  • Podcast
  • BMA
  • Events
  • Classifieds
Search

Subscribe to the Echo

Donate to The Echo

You can support the Echo by donating through the EMU Foundation and selecting to apply your gift to a specific fund. Any of the funds listed below will provide support to the Echo.

01049 -- EMU Echo Editor Endowed Scholarship:  Provides financial support for the current EMU Echo Editor.

02414 -- Scott Stephenson Eastern Echo Scholarship:  This expendable scholarship is for the benefit of student(s) in the School of Communication, Media & Theater Arts in the College of Arts & Sciences.  It will be awarded to a full or part-time junior or senior EMU student majoring in journalism and working for the Eastern Echo.  The student should be working to self-finance their education and not be eligible for need-based grants.

00825 -- Student Media Development:  Provides support for the Student Media program.

Thank you for supporting the Echo and EMU Student Media.

Give Now


2/24/2013, 10:27pm

Matt on Music: Bettie Serveert's 'Oh, Mayhem!'

By Matt Rice
Matt on Music: Bettie Serveert's 'Oh, Mayhem!'
Courtesy Amazon.com and Courtesy Amazon.com

Bettie Serveert’s new album, ‘Oh, Mayhem!’ is the group’s first complete success.

Share

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Mail
  • Print

It’s interesting to look into what happened to all of the ’90s indie bands after the ’90s ended. Pavement broke up, of course, while Modest Mouse’s success continued to grow. A lot of them lost much of their popularity, but how their later discography held up varies from band to band. R.E.M.’s later music never held a candle to their older stuff, while The Magnetic Fields released many great albums after their 1999 classic “69 Love Songs.”

Bettie Serveert are most well-known for their 1992 album “Palomine,” but they only got better after the ’90s ended. Their 2003 release “Log 22” was superior to anything they’d released prior, and would be remembered more fondly if they hadn’t released it so late in their career. Their new album, “Oh, Mayhem!” tops “Log 22,” managing to be the group’s first complete success.

Released more than 20 years after their debut, “Oh, Mayhem!” is an LP more terrific than anyone could have anticipated. It could be compared to “Tattoo You,” if you ignore that “Tattoo You” was not the Rolling Stones’ best record and it only came out 17 years after their debut.

One of the many reasons that “Oh, Mayhem!” works so well is because everyone involved is putting in their all. The guitar work, bass playing and Carol van Dijk’s vocals all rock incredibly hard, bringing Sleater-Kinney to mind more than either The Corin Tucker Band or Wild Flag. Meanwhile, like a lot of great art, van Dijk’s lyrics seem to be influenced by a broken heart.

The opening track “Shake-Her” may be the most rocking song the band has ever released, featuring a riot-grrrl guitar riff over van Dijk yelling lines like “No, you’re not allowed to sit down here in anticipation/Oh, there is no doubt, you’re gonna hear the allegation.” She carries herself well in the song, refusing to let the hurt she’s feeling drag her down. Instead, she helps it lift her up, sounding more confident and assertive than she ever has.

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have her soft side, though. On “Had2Byou,” the slowest and catchiest song on the album, she sings, “And though I know it doesn’t matter/Every time my heart was shattered and broken in two/It had to be you.”

“Monogamous” is a jazzy track that stands out due to its Fiona Apple-like bizarreness, but it has an extremely important lyrical role on the album as well. Every other song paints van Dijk as hurt, but this one goes further, showing her as someone who has just about lost her faith in humanity’s ability to choose just one mate. “There ain’t no such thing as a monogamous love/There is always someone else that you’ll be thinking off” is a brutal line because of its utter hopelessness. “You can say all you want/But you know it’s true/Mother Nature made no exception of you,” meanwhile, attacks her ex. He’s not a special case, but neither is anyone, according to her. We’re all just part of the same un-monogamous species. It’s unlikely that we’ll hear a more hard-hitting breakup song all year.

Like all of the greatest heartbreak albums, “Oh, Mayhem!” deals with feelings of superiority and inferiority to the former lover, anger, frustration and helplessness, all culminating in a final track that states, “Carpe your diem/Is part of my being.” It is an angry, bitter album, but it’s also likely to be one of the best of the year.

Grade: A

Key tracks: “Had2Byou,” “Shake-Her,” “Monogamous,” “Receiver” and “D.I.Y.”

Share



Related Stories

fake.jpeg

Review: All Time Low's 'Fake as Hell' is too real

By Kasper Mielke

asking alexandria album.jpg

There is more than meets the eye with 'Where Do We Go From Here?'

By Kasper Mielke

movements review.jpg

Review: Movements' 'Tightrope' is bound to pull at one's heartstrings

By Kasper Mielke



Most Popular


9/27/2023, 1:00pm

E|Dining reported for health violations in campus facilities

By Erin Flynn

Washtenaw County Environmental Health documents its recent EMU health inspections.


9/30/2023, 3:55pm

EMU football's Samson Evans ties Eagles' all-time career touchdown record


9/26/2023, 6:24pm

EMU’s Black Student-Athlete Association back for a second year


9/29/2023, 2:34pm

Eastern Michigan vs. Central Michigan game preview, odds, what to watch


Podcast


8/15/2023, 12:19pm

The Eastern Echo Podcast: Ep. 20- Graduate Interview with Rashimi Rai


4/27/2023, 11:33am

Eastern Echo Podcast: Editor-in-Chief Layla McMurtrie Signing Off


2/12/2023, 2:39pm

Echo Interviews: Kings of Color President Dylan Hughey discusses Black History Month


2/12/2023, 2:32pm

The Block E Podcast: Super Bowl Sunday


Tweets by TheEasternEcho
Eastern Michigan Echo To Homepage
  • About
  • Jobs
  • Freelance
  • Submissions
  • Advertise
  • Distribution

All Rights Reserved

© Copyright 2023 The Eastern Echo

Powered by Solutions by The State News.