Loosen Up E.P. Review

Flipside
70
1995


Named for the Fun House song, NY Loose possesses NY cool to spare. Only five cuts comprise this mini-movement, but the bleak whole is some kind of mini-miracle, detonating with a devastating description of "The Desperate Hopeful":  spitting out painful empowerment and golden apathy, haughty hottie Brijitte West slashes through a gamut of emotions only to rationalize she's "just another girl"‹nothing could be farther from the truth (West even turned down the lead role in Garbage). "Loosen Up" kicks a bent riff in the dirt and throws off Cheap Trick quips. The reverberating "James" is the album's great lost (agit) pop song. Backed by pounding back-alley power punk, West closes the record with a ricocheting rallying call for all the hung dudes and strung chicks of the late twentieth century.  Can't ask for much more from fifteen minutes, and you can't get any better than NY Loose.


-STONE, Cheap Trash NYC
 
Click here to return to Cheap Trash News, Reviews, & More.