Mecca Normal
Sitting On Snaps (Matador)
by Marc Hirsh
Mecca Normal
Sitting On Snaps (Matador)
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in the Public News, October 11, 1995
Mecca Normal is the forward equivalent of a record played backwards. Over David Lester's single electric guitar, Jean Smith's full-throated vocals swoop and fall and sound annoyingly unlike the normal human voice. It's as if Delores O'Riordan tried to take her vocal flourishes three levels further, or if Alanis Morrissette decided to make even less sense.
Although the results border on unlistenable, it's almost impossible not to pay attention to Smith, which makes Lester's job a fairly thankless one. Whether it's boredom, some sort of inside joke or another unexplainable urge that causes him to build songs around ripoffs of Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" and the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" remains unanswered.
Some of these songs might well be broadcastworthy with fuller band arrangements. "Pamela Makes Waves" might turn into a jaunty surf tune, and "Trapped Inside Your Heart" could be a pop song if it wants to be, Mazzy Star on acid instead of barbiturates. That is, of course, not the idea at all, which leaves Mecca Normal in the position of having created very streamlined, very difficult music.