Songs About Fucking

Big Black’s final full-length, Songs About Fucking brought about a definite sharpening of the band's sound. Steve Albini's mangled screaming is at its most bileful, his and Santiago Durango's guitars don't meander, and the rhythm section of Dave Riley and Roland is more taut than prior. Ugly characters line up in the songs like early arrivals at a monster truck rally. Most significantly, there's the murderer in "Fish Fry." Who else but Steve Albini could paint the picture of a man hosing out his truck after chucking a dead body from it into a nearby pond? His use of the first person can be misleading, but it's a necessary perspective for effect. Big Black left with more of a kling klang than a bang, bowing out with a reverent cover of Kraftwerk's "The Model." To sum up: yowl, ching, thump-thump-screech. The CD version adds the B-side of "The Model," a swell cover of Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore."- All Music Guide