Aunt Bettys

Item: Aunt Bettys
Author: Todd Brown

(1996)

Reviewed by Todd Brown

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Label EastWest Records AmericaThe LighthouseDecember 1996

alternative rock pop punk punk

Be warned. This is not even remotely a Christian record. If you come to it looking for Christian content, not only will you not find any, you will most likely be offended by a song or two. Rather, this album is Mike Knott's secular project. Fans of LSU, The Lifesavers, and Knott's solo work take note. This is essentially the same band that made the Grace Shaker record, and musically, Knott and company have rarely, if ever, been in finer form. This flat out rocks. Take Knott's recent singer/songwriter styled works and layer over them, if you will, a flat-out full band assault. (This is precisely what has been done with the reworked version of Rocket and a Bomb's "Kitty Courtesy".) The result is a collection of songs that in the span of seconds can alternate between intelligent vulnerability and an all-out sonic assault. And a lot of the songs are just a lot of fun. "Mother Trucker," "Star Baby," "Speeder Mode," and "Rock and Roll" will all send many listeners leaping for the repeat button.

If it's this much fun, why the warning at the beginning? Well, this was written with the secular market in mind, actually probably more so with the idea of shocking the secular market in mind, so the lyrical content is somewhat less than pristine. Knott breaks out some of the "words not to be used in polite company" on a couple of occasions, and at least half the songs deal openly with issues surrounding sex and alcohol. It seems decently fair to describe this record as being pretty straight-up sex, drugs, and rock n roll-not exactly a favored combination in contemporary Christian music circles. The most disturbing lyric appears in "Feel," a lovely little tune about a man who becomes obsessed with a lesbian and presents a list of things he'd be willing to do to gain her affections. It's not a very pretty picture.

Musically, this is some of the best stuff we'll hear this year. It stumbles only a couple times throughout the album ("Addict" and "Suicide Sex Doll"). If the only issue for you is what it sounds like, or if you're an obsessive completist with a thing for Knott's music, you'll want this. If you're looking for Christian content, you'll probably want to stay away.