For the band's fourth album in as many years,
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine
takes a darker and more fed-up tone than before. Where albums like
1992: The Love Album
or
101 Damnations
had been more overtly tongue in cheek, there's a new kind of directness and even a little bitterness on display on
Post Historic Monsters
. The acoustic
folk
of
"Suicide Isn't Painless"
is a direct slam against
Manic Street Preachers
and the way lead singer
Richey James
would exploit his own mental illness for publicity, and
"Lenny and Terence"
takes dead aim at
Lenny Kravitz
and
Terence Trent D'Arby
for their obsession with musical styles of the past. The songs are basically straight-up dance
rock
with punkish, distorted guitar over chattering beats, with the lounge-y
"Being There"
the main exception. A solid but somewhat hectoring album,
is a bit wearying to listen to. ~ Stewart Mason