Desperado - Beauty Is The First Victim
In a nutshell, Norwegian quintet Desperado play fairly minimalist, lo-fi garage rock with sometimes deliberately banal lyrics. The vocals are delivered with a slightly audible Scandinavian accent and alternate between a raspy yelp and high-pitched shouting, while the guitar sound is as dry as your grandmother's nether regions. Only one track reaches three minutes in length, and with a total playing time of just under 24 minutes, "Beauty Is The First Victim" has come and gone in a flash. Unfortunately, Desperado aren't big on choruses or hooks in general, which can mean that songs on the album have a tendency to pass you by with little impression.
Although this is the band's debut album they have an earlier EP to their name, a track from which - the bizarrely titled 'All Hat No Cattle' - was apparently nominated as 'Song of the Year' by Norwegian National Radio. A re-recorded version of the track appears as the opening cut on "Beauty Is The First Victim", and although it must have been a slow year for Norwegian music when it received its nomination, it is probably the best song on the CD. It's certainly the most immediate, with its more rocking guitars and repeated cries of "Shut up and dance!"
Desperado's promo bio pegs them as "chaotic, wild and totally insane," but their main problem is that they just aren't unhinged enough. Funny song titles and a shouty frontman do not insanity make, and although tempos are hardly slow and vocalist Thomas Ryjord is probably about to burst something, there is a strangely laid back, relaxed vibe to proceedings which can be a bit emotionally detaching for the listener. The songs on "Beauty Is The First Victim" never manage to break out of genre constraints and take on a life of their own, but there is a great deal of potential on display here. If Desperado can work on making their music a little livelier and catchier, then they may be onto something worth taking notice of. Until then, back to the garage.
Included as bonus on the enhanced CD is a video for 'All Hat No Cattle' which suits the track's tongue-in-cheek stupidity as the band play in a cramped cell beneath a wrestling ring in which sweaty, beefy men are pounding each other in slow motion. You also get the chance to fully appreciate frontman Thomas Ryjord's winning ratty mullet and big sideburns combo.