ONSIND recently released their (very good) new album, which means it's about time I wrote about their last record. The theme of Mildred, Margie, Annie, Clarice is one I've never seen attempted before and one I like a lot - each of the four songs is about a lead female character from a major film and examines some ideas that each one brings up. Luckily, the guys in ONSIND are intelligent enough to pull it off, and it made me think about the characters differently to how I had before. The four characters in question are Mildred from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Margie from Fargo, Annie from Misery and Clarice from The Silence of the Lambs.
I've only ever seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest once, and that was about 10 years ago. I was studying psychology at college and the film got mentioned a lot. I think sometime towards the end of my two years there the film was on TV and I saw it then. Evidently I wasn't paying very much attention, because I don't really remember Mildred at all. It's the only film of the four that I've not seen since, but based on the comments in the sleeve about this song, I should probably get on that.
Conversely, Fargo was the only film of the four that I hadn't seen before hearing the record. I recently found the DVD in one of the charity shops in town for £2 so bought it and finally watched it. By this point, I knew the song pretty well and, of the four songs here, Margie contains the most "spoilers" in that it gives away the most plot. It made the film differently interesting to watch, because I had this half-idea of what happens, but was enjoying seeing how it played out. Margie is the catchiest on the record, and I often have the outro of "Somewhere out there in the tundra is a briefcase filled with cash that nobody can" stuck in my head for days.
Misery and Silence of the Lambs are both films I've seen countless times and I think both are great (I even have them both on LaserDisc! I've included a picture of them at the bottom. I know they're not strictly related, but they're still cool). I've watched them both since listening to this record too, and it was nice to have these extra ideas to think about as I re-watched them. The sleeve notes suggest that Misery reflects Hollywood's nervousness of women gaining power and influence, which is a point I'd never thought about. I think part of the reason for that is that Misery genuinely scares the shit out of me and I tend to focus on that. If you've not seen it, skip the rest of this sentence - the scene with Paul's "hobbling" and the very end never fail to get my heart-rate going.
Similarly with Silence of the Lambs, I'd never really thought about the animal rights or LGBT ideas that get mentioned here, but I like to think that's because Hannibal Lector is such a fascinating character that he takes all my attention. I always thought the line "Defy your canine teeth" here was a great one, and Annie is one of my favourites here.
So, a very nice EP, enjoyable for both the music and the ideas behind it. It's not often (probably ever) that a record has made me think about a film differently (let alone two films), so this one certainly deserves some bonus points for that too.
Format: 10", a3 insert
Tracks: 5
Cost: £7 new
Bought: internet
When: 12/04/12
Colour: Transparent purple
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
