Puerto Muerto - Songs of Muerto County Revisited

  by Sarah Maybank

published: 24 / 1 / 2007

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Review

Looking like poster children for anyone who grew up unloved, lonely and imprisoned in a dark attic, wan-faced husband and wife duo Christa Meyer and Tim Kelley excel in spectral songscapes that’d make perfect date music for séance-goers. Eerie, unsettling, and lump-in-the-throat beautiful, this two-CD set pairs 'Songs Of Muerto County', a ‘lost’ soundtrack to fabled 70s gore how-to 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', with 'An Introduction To Puerto Muerto', a collection of B-sides and tracks from their first three albums. Faced with the same 'Chainsaw…' brief, less imaginative artists would’ve hastily forged a metal-esque chunk of horror-core, taken the money and run. Puerto pull the rug out from under your feet by employing plucked banjos, gently strummed guitars, and understated vocals, conjuring up a miasma of captivating dread that’d even have you irritatedly shushing if the National Lottery Show rang, saying your numbers had come up. At first, the songs seem more suited to a maiden aunt mourning a long-dead sweetheart who abandoned her at the altar half a century ago. "I sit all night and cry," sighs Christa in 'Apple Pie', while 'Wondering' is the master definition of love-lorn. Just as you’re about to dab your eyes in sympathy - and question what this all has to do with a mid-Western-clan of homicidal maniacs – she out-debases 'Debaser'-era Frank Black with lyrics such as "They’re all so young, so fresh and sweet", then slams home the confused terror of anyone who’s ever emerged from an amnesiac episode with a bloodied axe in their hand in 'What Have I Done ?'. Puerto’s perversity extends to satirising their own image. Fully aware they’ll attract the type of morbid weirdo who’d like to see them perform their output solely at midnight, and on the sites of unsolved murders from the 1850's, they stuff their liner notes with tongue-in-cheek "biographical" information, such as the fact they were convicted of sorcery in 1857, and at certain phases of the lunar cycle they exude a blood-like substance that smells like marzipan. Look and learn, Nick Cave. Look and learn.

Track Listing:-

1 Muerto County
2 Ghostee
3 Yeah
4 Josephine
5 Walking
6 What Have I Done?
7 Apple Pie
8 Road Song
9 Wondering
10 Cherries
11 Black Maria
12 Goodbye
13 San Pedro
14 Blood Red Wine
15 Chapayevs Machine Gunners
16 Tennessee
17 Stars
18 Boy
19 Fathers Treasure (Randy Wilson Remix)
20 Alcohol (Acoustic)
21 Jean Lafitte (Acoustic)

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