SUPREME DICKS

The Emotional Plague as psych masterwork
by Brett Abrahamsen
(June 2023)

Supreme Dicks are fondly remembered by '90's college rock enthusiasts: their meandering slacker diversions are often compared favorably to Neutral Milk Hotel and other bands of that ilk. Their song "Blue Elephant" is something of an alternative touchstone even. Nonetheless, their masterpiece/swan song The Emotional Plague is hardly ever discussed, despite being arguably the greatest album of the decade, and certainly the most cryptic, obscure, and rarefied.

It is an album in which artwork and music are perfectly synchronized: Van Eyck's Ghent Alterpiece, combined with the sparse, eerie opening moments of "Synaesthesia," immediately bestows upon the listener an intense, hallucinatory religious feeling. The total absence of rhythm contributes to this (though sparse drumming appears on a few tracks later on). As an opening statement, "Synaesthesia" feels like a majestic, veiled revelation.

The second track - "Cuchulain (Blackbirds Loom)" - is, on the surface, a much more normal, melodic song, but it is equally eerie and mysterious. It has a blurred, rustic feel, with the lyrics eloquently describing the exploits of the mythological Irish god/monster. It also features strange, beautiful guitar work, as do most tracks on this album (three of the five band members contribute guitar).

"Columnated Ruins" is one of the early progenitors of freak folk, a bizarre psychedelic jam that is, if possible, even more obtuse than the two songs that preceded it. We may not know what the Supreme Dicks are trying to say with this song, but it feels monumental, awe-inspiring, revelatory. The spoken word coda is perhaps an unnecessary tangent; their archaic lyricism is explored to greater effect later on.

Following the intensity of that piece, the proceedings are (briefly) brought down to earth with the more conventionally pleasant "Along a Bearded Glade" and the catchy "Swell Song," the latter of which is probably the only song on the album that would have fit on one of their other albums (namely the predecessor, The Unexamined Life).

These brief pieces are only a detour, or perhaps a respite; the songs that follow "Swell Song" are dense, abstract, and impenetrable. "Showered" is another instrumental in the style of "Along a Bearded Glade," but much longer, odder, and more intense. The psychedelic quality is especially prominent here; the song feels woozy, out of focus. "A Donkey's Burial In A Tower On A Mirage" is as strange and stunning as its title and epic running length (nearly 10 minutes) suggest. The lyrics speak of fires and bright orange bloomed cocks, all of it inscrutable. The song builds in intensity as it goes along, culminating in a frenzied climax. "Adoration de l'Agnaeu Mystique" - "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" in English; the title is a direct reference to the Van Eyck painting on the cover - is perhaps even more uncanny, with strange noises simulating lambs, incomprehensible lyrics about Fred Astaire, moonlight lemonade, and covered wagons, a slow, implacable logical development, and a general mood of hallucinated austerity. The track is followed by another gem, "Porridge for the Calydonian Boar." The lyrics are otherworldly non-sequiturs: "I saw the light of a thousands skies open once and close again." "Sleeping deserts eternally wander around the crossroads of consumption." And, perhaps most baffling of all: "And the orange sun is setting/the ducks are all getting ready for sauce." What does it mean? Immediately, the scene is switched, from a tranquil sunset over a pond to an impending meal. Could the two scenes be reconciled? Or is it merely a piece of lyrical nonsense, intended to confound the listener? The melancholy atmosphere of the track - which eventually reaches a somber, haunting crescendo - adds to the sense of mystery, as does the brief mention of the "golden bear" of the title. It is the apocalypse, the birth of time, and the Second Coming all in one.

The next track, "Siberian Penal Colony" - featuring an arcane dedication to an unknown Joel Stanley - is less impressive, though equally cryptic, austere, and inscrutable. The album concludes with a "Showered" reprise (called "Green Wings Fly Adventure" instead of merely "Showered Reprise" - this unexplained decision meshes in well with a record overflowing with cryptic, inscrutable song titles).

One could start a cult or a religion with this album as its central tenet. What is the revelation that the Supreme Dicks were trying to give through The Emotional Plague? How would have they followed the album up had they not quietly dissolved among general indifference? One cannot possibly imagine a follow up to a work this terminal, and of course, there wasn't one. It remains a cryptic allegory, shrouded in an impenetrable mystique.

Thousands (literally) of books have been written about the Beatles and their trivial pop, but nothing has been written about the Supreme Dicks and their ominous, babelic triumph. It will stand as an indecipherable Rosetta Stone for future generations, perhaps, after the deluge of Beatlemania ends.