Angel Guts: Red Classroom contains some of Xiu Xiu’s darkest material alongside some of their most accessible tracks. Whichever end of this spectrum the songs happens to land on, most tracks prove to be interesting enough without being either too severe or bland to alienate the listener one way or the other. Still, it is these harsher tracks which are the highlights of the tracklist.
Overall the album is characterized by Suicide-esque drum machines, intermittent barrages of noise, diverse instrumentation, and Stewart’s vocals which shift between shaky whispers to agonized screaming.
The album’s first six tracks are all fairly tame for Xiu Xiu, with “Stupid in the Dark” being a highlight and example of a good Xiu Xiu song that anyone could appreciate. It contains a catchy chorus, fairly perceptible lyrics, and a solid arrangement in terms of dynamics.
“El Naco” is the album’s first truly horrifying track. It starts with a disorienting pairing of tubular bells and a resonant synthesizer before Stewart bursts into the mix yelling “ANTS IN THE RICE! / ANTS IN THE SEAWEED!” and so on. Each stanza is also punctuated by a piercing alarm-like synth. As the song progresses both musical and noise elements are added to create a constant feeling of horrified anxiety until the song takes a deep breath (literally) and starts to calm down.
The rest of the album after “El Naco” is overall more dissonant than the first half, especially with “Cinthya’s Unisex” and the closer, “:Red Classroom”. The former is both sonically and thematically harrowing as it portrays a man watching his lover have a threesome as he accidentally stumbles upon the scene and observes in secret. The closing track is simple: the sounds of blowing wind interrupted by periodic bursts of what sounds like a chainsaw cutting up dead bodies. The first outburst is unexpected and terrifying while each subsequent eruption somehow becomes more biting than the last.
Tracks like “Archie’s Fades” and “The Silver Platter” are fairly dwarfed by many of the other tracks on this album. Neither have any great dynamic range or any particular element or motif that stands out as all that special. The former might have been used as a brief reprieve from the insanity of the other tracks but it comes right after the introduction, “Angel Guts:”, which is nothing more than wind blowing accompanied by some eerie rubato guitar lines. Simply arranging the order of some of the titles in this album could have served it better.
When compared to Xiu Xiu’s most famous project, Plays the Music of Twin Peaks, this album deserves a spot right next to Twin Peaks as an example of Xiu Xiu’s best work. Not every track is effective at holding attention, but the ones that demand attention do so with great authority and make for memorable moments, even if you wont find yourself humming anything other than the hook of “Stupid in the Dark” afterwards. Rating: 8.2/10
- Kendrick Haskins