Album Review: Joe Gideon & The Shark - Freakish

Joe Gideon and his sister 'The Shark' released their debut album in 2009, and it was met with a great deal of success. While the gritty, thumping rhythms and Gideon's snarky-toned voice still remain the most prominent features of the record, their second release, Freakish, sees the obscurity turned up several notches.

A great deal of the content sits on a very indecipherable line of quirky and just plain weird. Gideon's monotone voice erratically guides you through a nonsensical story that has something to do with cats and dogs in the album's opener I'm Ruined. A clunky guitar trudges through slow-paced drum beats like a toned-down rendition of the opening track of Swans' 1983 album Filth. It's almost trance-inducing, but the spontaneous meows, grunts and unintelligible noises make it pretty hard to sink into the catchy instrumentation and admire the intricacy in which it builds on itself.

Once they get the slightly annoying bouts of lunacy out of their system, they start to exhibit admirable levels of creativity. The Insignificant Bullet and Higher Power/Where Have All The Good Times Gone still revolve around bizarre banter, but without actually succumbing to be being totally bizarre in every aspect. The focus is drawn away from the absurdity, and instead their great musicianship is highlighted.

Joe Gideon & The Shark have done something really different with Freakish. A great deal of it is pretty hard to swallow, but while being weird for the sake of being weird doesn't always work in their favour, there are some fantastic moments when their eccentricity is undeniably charming.