ST 37 I Love to Talk, If There's Anything to Talk About (Emperor Jones)

ST 37

I Love to Talk, If There's Anything to Talk About (Emperor Jones)

Boyoboy, do ST 37 ever live up to the title of this one! With the opening "Acetone," a slice of Sixties Texas punk as heard through an air vent, the chatter begins, which in this case is a redneck voice spouting homilies ("I gave you the secrets of the universe, and you called the cops on me!") and continues with a found monologue that weaves throughout the 17-minute droner "Palpable." The remainder of the album consists of a combination, to varying degrees, of the above. As usual, Austin's space rockers manage to make the result greater than the sum of its parts, with the 72-minute disc never getting just plain dull. Notable is the band's beautiful/ugly take on the Brian Eno/John Cale composition "Lay My Love" (who knew ambient father Eno was published by ZZ Top's local outfit Hamstein?), featuring Susannah Erler on violin and Ursa Major's Pam Peltz providing guest vocals.