Flipped Out In Singapore

With the help of Butch Vig behind the boards — and to be sure, opening cut "Connie I've Found the Door" rather sounds like a cut by then-current Vig clients the Smashing Pumpkins, musically if not vocally — Chainsaw Kittens amped up all their glam/punk strengths with great results. What sometimes came across as pleasant willfulness on Violent Religion gets transformed into full-on glee, anger, and debauchery in equal spades. As rock very happily kicking against images of the humdrum and conservative — especially in 1992, when there was plenty of that going around in music and out of it — Flipped Out in Singapore is a veritable feast. Another set of too-perfect song titles like "My Friend Delirium," "Shannon's Fellini Movie," and "Angels Self Destruct" make the grit-and-glitter aesthetic clear enough; an aesthetic the Kittens pursue with gusto. Tyson Meade's slinky and shrill vocals suit the driving hysteria of the music even better than before, while the band itself is helped by the addition of previous album guest Trent Bell on guitar. Drummer Aaron Preston brings a stronger presence to his job than was previously heard, no doubt helped along by Vig's skills. Dramatic and effective touches abound — the Iggyish snarl midway through "High in High School," followed by echoed drums and strummed acoustic guitar, or the hilariously goofy backwards vocals (or are they?) in the title track, not to mention the concluding gang-shout. Meade comes up with some wonderfully wired lyrics throughout — thus the opening lines to "Never to Be Found" (which also has some lovely chiming guitar on the breaks to recommend it): "The ambulance is gone and the crowd lingers on, and the surveillance team's gathering bodies, but they'll be gone at dawn" — this from a love song, to top it all off.