The title track here is brilliant, stunning. It’s spoken word, but it’s a phenomenal polemic about life in the suburbs in a post-truth, social media age. “My vanity project is failing,” says Karen Jonas, and maybe it is for all of us.
That one comes near the end of “The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch,” the ideas for which came mostly when Jonas saw the Baz Luhrmann adaptation of Elvis on a plane. It shows.
“Rich Man’s Valley” deals with the Carter family, not The King: “You can tell me how tacky it is when we get to the bank,” she sings, and this has an old-school country feel, right down to the yodeling.
That vibe continues with “Four Cadillacs.” With its swing feel, it could be wafting from the bar in the prohibition era, and it’s striking how authentic this all sounds.
“Shake Bump And Grind Show”, x-rated stuff, if you’re a blusher like me, anyway. It’s got a catchy chorus, and you probably need protection.
This all sounds like the soundtrack to a film that was playing out in Jonas’ head. Her sultry, breathless vocal for “Gold In The Sand” takes things to a different place, and that’s what “Let’s Go To Hawaii” offers too. Something like Elvis would have done in his film period, where he’d have worked in the boat yard and then somehow randomly sung like a God for no reason, but I digress.
But then, the whole album feels like a digression if I’m honest. There’s no need For the old-school country strum of “Plastic Pink Flamingos” to exist in 2024, beyond this: why shouldn’t it?
“Call Dr. Nick” is another one to file under the “weird” column. A dark, jazzy piece, it explores drug addiction in a way you certainly don’t see coming—through the eyes of Elvis, naturally.
And it seems that Karen Jonas had a checklist of things she wanted to do here. “Black Jacket and Red Guitar” checks off rock ‘n’ roll, while “Mama’s Gone” dials up the soul, and “Online Shopping” continues the discussion about consumerism (and eating takeout naked) but cleverly does so over a sound that most assuredly doesn’t say 2024.
The last one—the acoustic “Buy”—reasons “I think I’ll buy a Lazyboy and sleep away my days.” To be truthful, the way the world is right now, that doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
The trouble is, in life, you always need more time, don’t you? And that’s true of this record too.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter how many times you listen to “The Rise and Fall of American Kitsch.” I’m not sure you’d ever fully understand it. It would keep revealing more to you.
An astonishingly quirky, yet always compelling and beguiling thing. It sounds wholesome, yet its beating heart is the death of the American Dream.
Rating: 8/10
