Oh Perilous World

By about 90 seconds into “Draconian Crackdown”—the best track on Melora Creager’s latest outburst of Victorian death pop—the entire appeal of Rasputina’s checkered history has blasted into glorious being: over-electrified cello blaring feedback, monster metal drum work, spectral backing vocals, unanticipated allusions to classic rock hooks, and that warbling voice tripping lightly over the arcane vocabulary of yesteryear’s unwashed. The “band” has dropped any pretense of a permanent lineup—the previous four albums were Creager and two other random lady cellists willing to don corsets—and focuses solely on the mastermind and her bearded imp of a percussionist, Jonathon TeBeest. Oh Perilous World is presented as a “Pulitzer-prize winning” vaudeville called “The Files of Thursday Christian” that took place in the imaginary (and probably dusty) town of Yellowcake, sometime in the indefinite pre-electric past. Obsessive fans had a crack at a limited edition double album featuring, among other curiosities, “The Pruning” performed by Access Hollywood’s Pat O’Brian (or, to be precise, a spot-on impersonator). Those late to the party will content themselves with the main album’s feverish stories about goats swimming in floodwaters, talking vapors, and snail fever.

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