First things first: Mecca Normal has some heavy-duty detractors. In “Skip Tracer,” Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo dismisses Jean Smith’s lyrics as “the poetic truths of high school journal keepers,” her look “red patent leather / Very ‘I’m in a band’ with knee pads.” Celebrated critic Robert Christgau snarkily claimed he preferred Smith’s lyrics as spoken word rather than accompanied by music—because they were over quicker. I suspect their demeanor at live shows turned a lot of people off. They seem to have taken themselves a tad too seriously.
And it’s true that the lyrics here seem swelled with a certain sense of importance, without meaning much to me at all. But I don’t really pay much attention to the lyrics, honestly. For me, they exist merely as a series of phrases and images upon which to drape the duo’s sound. And for me, it’s all about their sound.
Jean Smith sings with a wavering, brassy, nasal voice, often multi-tracked, droning toward a trace of dissonance. And David Lester’s guitar can erupt in jagged waves of noise or beguile with scattered, scraping atmospheres. Together, I find the sound thoroughly intoxicating.
The two-person crew of Jean Smith on vocals and David Lester on guitar was something of a novelty at the time. In hindsight, Mecca Normal appears to be an early example of the two-person alt-rock band, a precursor to a huge trend (later seen with the White Stripes, Black Keys, The Kills, The Raveonettes, Beach House, and plenty of others, many of whom seem to feature a male-female duo, like here).
Here’s a sampling on Mecca Normal, focused on perhaps their two most well-received albums, the indie classic Dovetail (1992) and their Matador label debut Sitting on Snaps (1995).
Playlist Note: Sadly, Sitting on Snaps, often considered Mecca Normal’s breakthrough album, appears to be unavailable on Spotify. Ditto for Who Shot Elvis? (1997), from which I’d planned to include a few tracks. What’s left is about three quarters of Dovetail.
Cover Art:
- Sitting on Snaps: Source, Discogs.com, Fair use.
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