The Paranoid Style is the band of Washington DC-based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Elizabeth Nelson. With the release of The Interrogator on February 2, their discography is now four full-lengths deep, the whole bunch issued by the enduring Hoboken, NJ indie Bar/None Records. The latest by Nelson and crew offers work as intelligent (not a given in the rock scene) and sturdy as ever, but with the added benefit of Peter Holsapple (co-founder of the dB’s) on lead guitar. Featuring 13 crisp songs, the album is available on vinyl, compact disc, and digital.
To expand on the smarts that help to distinguish The Paranoid Style from the pack, it bears noting that Elizabeth Nelson’s a journalist, and a very good one, her work in the pages of The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and the Oxford American (amongst others) covering a range of topics from music (natch) to film and TV to sports to politics (The Paranoid Style’s name derives from Richard Hofstadter’s 1964 essay for Harper’s Magazine, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics”).
Nelson’s word gush in The Paranoid Style has been compared to John Darnielle, a similarity that hovers around the fringes of The Interrogator but really comes into focus in the record’s finale “The Findings” (interestingly, it’s the only co-write on the record, the credit shared with Nicky Beer). Deepening the Darnielle connection, “The Findings” moves at a slower pace than the up-tempos and middles that dominate the album as it bustles forward.
Yes, The Paranoid Style is a band. Along with Nelson and new addition Holsapple, the lineup finds Timothy Bracy (Nelson’s husband) on guitar, William Corrin on bass, Jon Langmead on drums, and William Matheny on guitar and keyboards, plus assistance from Matt Douglas, Lisa Walker, and Will Rigby in unspecified roles (there is a smattering of horns and additional keyboards in a few tracks, and even a little violin).
But mostly, The Interrogator is lean guitar rock, with those faster tempos brimming with energy that reinforces The Paranoid Style’s punk foundation. However, Nelson’s love of a wide range of earlier rock styles shines through, but in a thoroughly non-retrograde way, e.g. the inspired Chuck Berry rips in the boisterously stomping opening title track.
The results can sound a little new wavy in flashes, and that’s cool, but maybe better said, Nelson’s songs are more consistently reminiscent of the punk-friendly song-smithing from cats like Nick Lowe, Graham Parker, Wreckless Eric, and Elvis Costello after he hooked up with the Attractions. And so, the instrumental thrust can occasionally exude a post-pub-rocky Stiff Records vibe (bringing us back around to new wave), but there’s a contemporary inventiveness and urgency that further elevates The Paranoid Style’s stuff.
It helps that Nelson sings like a cross between Mekon Sally Timms and Lucinda Williams, nowhere more so than in “The Ballad of Pertinent Information (Turn It On).” Her delivery is clean and direct, important qualities as her songs are full of syllables, all of them necessary. And to return to the subject of lyrics, it’s clear Nelson has been inspired by songwriters ranging from Warren Zevon to Randy Newman, but with each passing album, The Paranoid Style’s sound is increasingly their own.
This is nowhere more evident than in The Interrogator’s late gem “Print the Legend,” it’s title likely drawn from a key line of dialogue near the conclusion of John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (a safe assumption, as The Paranoid Style’s 2017 EP “Underworld USA” shares its title with a Sam Fuller film). A story-song, “Print the Legend” unwinds with vivid but unstrained literary imagery, its rich narrative flow just maybe the best I’ve heard since Eleventh Dream Day’s “Bagdad’s Last Ride.”
It’s not wound as tight as that post-Crazy Horse/Dream Syndicate monster, but “Print the Legend” shines bright through erudition, grit and panache. Imbued with this brilliance throughout, The Interrogator is the band’s best album yet.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
