Miraculous Dissolving Cures

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Crushed Berries	3:33	Play
2		The Girl Who's Done It All	3:06	Play
3		Wingfoot	3:57	Play
4		In the Way of Sin	4:31	Play
5		Jane's Just Fine	3:44	Play
6		Volunteers	4:01	Play
7		Cutty Reel	6:08	Play
8		Certainly Della	5:05	Play
9		Alaska	3:47	Play
10		Unpaid Bills	5:41	Play

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Description

"Miraculous Dissolving Cures" (2001) - This musically rich collection of threnodies and noiresque tales finds Kaplan battling the forces of love and loss as well as the hypocrisy of both the secular and religious worlds. In "Crushed Berries" the narrator laments that his "friends will save a fly from a spiderweb but then they'll order rack of lamb or baby back ribs." In "Volunteers" the ghost of Job's wife rails against God for letting her children die "because of some bet, some stupid bet." "Cutty Reel" is the dreamscape of a jilted degenerate; in an attempt to win back his beloved, he tries to buy a voodoo doll of her but finds that they're "all sold out." Musically, the record has great range: from the quasi-latin beat of "Crushed Berries" to the hint of techno in "The Girl Who's Done It All" to the complex harmonies of voices and keyboards in "Jane's Just Fine" to the distorted harmonica and feedback guitars of "Cutty Reel" to the hypnotic mix of synthesizer and spanish guitar throughout "Unpaid Bills". The layered production of the album is temporarily suspended for the stark and introspective ballad "Certainly Della", whose melody alone floats above a lone guitar and barely audible keyboards. Most of the characters in this record have "one foot out of this dirty world." Yet they won't give up, realizing that "there's always more innocence left to lose." Images of constellations, spirits (both alcoholic and the ghostly type), and visual mediums recur throughout the album and the full-color 12-page c.d. booklet featuring abstract paintings juxtaposed to the words for each song matches the music's intensity. From the first strains of the echoing and warped guitar riff of "Crushed Berries" to the slow fade to black of "Unpaid Bills" "Miraculous Dissolving Cures" takes us on a journey from the recesses of Peru to the expanses of Alaska and covers as much ground emotionally along the way.

Randy reenlisted his Reborn As Bees band and recorded his fourth c.d., "Miraculous Dissolving Cures" in Lawrence, Kansas in early 2001. Brian Schey played bass, synthesizer, & guitar; Bradford Hoopes played organ & other keyboards, and Colin Mahoney engineered & played drums. The record weaves bittersweet nostalgia into existential mayhem. There are cinematic sociological anthems & self-deprecating left-handed satires which reveal honest & sometimes selfish motivations. His singing, like his songs, is subtle and deliberate; there is great breadth to Kaplan's emotional expression. His songs pit immediate gratification against foresight and infidelity against faith. The Independent of Lawrence, Kansas said that "(Kaplan's) songs are sweetly personal and wonderfully void of pretentious overtones ... The stories he sings wind and twist away from the ordinary and toward refreshing new ideas often humorous and bizarre ... never predictable." Time Out New York delighted in Kaplan's "cheekiness" while The Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Massachusetts noted that "Kaplan's creativity sends out sparks." Randy brought the band east for the record's release party at The Mercury Lounge in New York City. Long Island Newsday declared, "transcontinental singer-songwriter Randy Kaplan sounds like he can hold the line against most folk-pop comers. He compiles a collection of stories that incorporate elements of longing and loss ... there's also a serving of irony."