“prankster_mary”
Mary Prankster
Blue Skies over Dundalk
Fowl
Please allow me to testify! I have seen the light, I have heard Mary Prankster and my life may never be the same. The amazing Mary Prankster came to me in an un-assuming CD package that gave no hint of the power contained within. In terms of drama, you go from high tragedy though melodrama, drama, comedy, and on to farce. Farce and tragedy actually become the closest dramatic cousins. Mary Prankster’s Blue Skies over Dundalk lives in that narrow area where farce and tragedy meet. Many of her songs are quite funny on their own, but when taken in context of the rest of the album, become quite poignant. Songs like “Mercyfuck” and “Valentine” are anthems of self-loathing that makes Nirvana sound like the Cowsills. Her songwriting makes her sound like an ultra-modern Anne Sexton with Tourette’s Syndrome. Prankster has run into some problems with the authorities over her songs, and she sets some kind of record for use of the word “fuck” on an album that clocks in well under twenty minutes.
Most of the songs on the record are about sex, but none are about love, simply sex awash in drug, booze, and pain. The songs are incredibly tight without any wasted notes. If you are a fan of long guitar solos, there’ll be none of that here. This music is too desperate for any frills like that. With haunting, thought provoking songs that work on so many level, capped with a gut wrenching delivery that makes you uncertain whether to laugh or cry, Mary Prankster has emerged from the shadow of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland to become a quite intriguing artist, and Blue Skies over Dundalk one of the damndest records I’ve heard.
Fowl Records, P.O. Box 3617, Annapolis, MD 21403; http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Birdland/4740/index.html
