50 FOOT WAVE Golden Ocean 4AD
From page 78 of Classic Rock Magazine April 2005
Raw-throated indie elder stateswoman set to confound with excellent punk album.
Don’t mention the tsunami. I did once but I think I got away with it. If it wasn’t for the accidentally awkward associations the name of this band makes, 50 Foot Wave (formed in 2003) would be ideally named. Their sound sweeps away nearly all previous solo efforts by Kristen Hersh and takes a lot of preconceptions with it.
The one-time member of Throwing Muses has abandoned her ‘mature’- sounding solo efforts to record the heaviest music she has released to date and, like Janis Joplin fronting Come On Pilgrim- era Pixies, Golden Ocean abandons subtlety in favour of punky anthems such as Diving.
The stand-out track on this album is Clara Bow, which sounds like one of the greatest grunge anthems that never was.
■■■■■■■ ■■■ John Doran


