Customer Reviews

Power of Pussy

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4 star:		(1)
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This is an incredibly varied album, sometimes hysterically funny as on the title track, but always cerebral, thought-provoking and strangely captivating. It's awash with clever samples that definitely contribute to the ambience and the weirdness.

There are gentle ballads like Great Radio, What If and their cover of Kisses Sweeter Than Wine. Chicken Pussy is a bizarre sound collage with hilarious spoken lyrics while White Rental Car Blues sounds like a sweet soul song if you ignore the suggestive lyrics.

Nick Cave Dolls starts with those weird samples, a guy talking about the name of the band plus random snatches of conversation and noise, before Ann's wistful voice takes up a surrealistic tale of a stroll through the city while sending up a variety of stereotypes.

On Bedazzled she turns into Marlene Dietrich or similar European sultry chanteuse in a conversation/talk and response format with the other voices. The next one, Obscene & Pornographic Art, is a literate and witty observation of a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art that'll have you in stitches, especially the "suffragette song" segment.

A robotic, laconic male vocal narrates the tale of a visit to a strange game room over ominous warbling guitar sounds on What Kind Of Man Reads Playboy, while Junior kicks off with raucous guitar and turns into a love song with Ann's dreamy vocalising which also graces the wall-of-sound rock song Connie. The reference to "four wild Rednecks" at the start of I Need A New Tape raises a smile.

This amazing album's tour de force is the astonishing Folk Song, all 9+ minutes of it, where her voice really soars. It deals with inter alia anarchists, sexual politics, media networks, the Butthole Surfers, Giorgio Armani, Romeo Gigli and refers to anthropologist Joseph Campbell in this most beautiful chorus: "Joseph Campbell gave me hope and now I have been saved/So I sing hello death, goodbye Avenue A."

As the song progresses, Ann sings abut health food, Dr Suess, religion, TV series, movies, politics, taking mushrooms at Joshua Tree where Gram Parsons died, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Carlos Castaneda, Led Zeppelin, the feelgood movie of the decade and many other things, before ending with those beautiful lines again: "Hello death, goodbye Avenue A." Phew! Not many songs in the history of popular music can encompass so many things and still remain cohesive.

This is one of the most intelligent rock albums I've ever had the pleasure of hearing, brimful with melodic twists and turns, with gripping lyrics, brilliant instrumentation and vivid imagery. I know Ann Magnuson is now a successful actress, but I'm surprised she's not a famous author too, judging by her talent for satire and moving imagery.

I was introduced to this album in the 90s and I was blown away by its psychedelic mix of humor and satire. I have listened to this album throughout the years and it never fails to make me laugh. (It also inspired me to do mushrooms at Joshua Tree).

I haven't met all that many people who can appreciate the brilliance of Nick Cave Dolls, Obscene and Pornographic Art and Women Tied Up in Knots. This is definitely not for everyone but if you want to hear something that has a great sound and will make you laugh on days when it's really hard to, then give this album a try.

I have all of Bongwater's albums but nothing compares to the Power of Pussy!

Why is Ann Magnusun (vocals for Bongwater) not ultra-famous? She comes up with the best lines that, I swear, you will be using as if they're your own! The music though is very conveluted and symiotic, with multiple layers and and cords that don't seem that they fit (but they actually do, according to my music major friends). This is perfomance art at it's best! The CD is worth buying, if anything, for the last song "Folk Song," or "Obscean and Pornographic Art"---GREAT...they will buckle you over!

P.S. Ann Magnuson is also a character actress. I've seen her pop up now and then in movies. The last one being the real estate agent in "Panic Room."