L7 - Bricks Are Heavy CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

energy that makes the band go.

Bricks throws the first stone on the opener, "Wargasm." Fueled by crunchy power chords (like all L7 numbers) and unapologetically political (like most L7 numbers), the song jeers at our country's blood lust from the opening line, "Tie a yellow ribbon round the amputee." The album's best song. "Scrap," is also the only one Vig hasn't flattened by giving the rhythm section, guitar and vocals equal, soggy balance. This story of a paint-sniffing skinhead features a shatteringly brilliant riff and coolly filtered vocals. Sometimes the band itself falters – harmonizing, for example, on "Pretend We're Dead" – but Bricks is rich with daring, dazzling moments. No other metal band would build a song around a line John Waters gave to Divine ("My diet pill is wearing off") that scores ancillary points about the media's manipulation of women. The band sneers at punk purists while gleefully showing its melodic hardcore roots in the full-barrel surf assault "Mr. Integrity."

L7 is too powerful sounding to buckle under the neatly modulated dynamics of Vig's production, but Bricks Are Heavy is merely raucous where it might have been apocalyptic. (RS 639)

ARION BERGER