For all the former Jesus Lizard frontman's legendary dick-swinging and shit-flinging, David Yow's new band Qui are capable of making some very pretty music. About a half-minute into to Love's Miracle opener "Apartment", drummer Paul Christensen begins singing in a simple, full, and tuneful voice, soothing the rapid fire-onslaught conjured by himself and guitarist Matt Cronk. If you're harboring fantasies about Yow's new project returning unchecked violence and grit to indie rock, Qui couldn't have chosen a better way to burst your bubble. But though it's far from the revelatory experience that many hoped it would be, Love's Miracle is a satisfyingly loud, far-flung, and fucked-up record.
To wish for a return of the Jesus Lizard is to sell short both the potential of Yow's new bandmates and the accomplishments of his old ones. Indeed, the two projects are fundamentally different; while the Jesus Lizard were unnervingly focused, Qui are much more playful and disjointed. "Gash", with its spare and screechy guitar lead, is more in line with the work of contemporary noisemongers Lightning Bolt. The aforementioned "Apartment" has all the jerky and repetitive intensity of vintage Don Caballero. A cover of the Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart tune "Willie the Pimp" is a dead ringer for God Ween Satan-era Ween.Love's Miracle is Qui's first record with Yow on vocals, and the band still seems to be figuring out how best to incorporate him. While Yow's performance is consistently excellent, it doesn't always seem to further the cause of the music; there are too many moments on Love's Miracle that effectively reduce Qui's extremely talented instrumentalists to a backing band and the inimitable Yow to a sideshow. While the Gollum-like cajoling "smack her, smack her!" on "Gash" is wonderfully menacing, it's not all that well-suited to Cronk's high-octane riffage. The overlong "A#1" comes off as subpar psychedelic riff-rock pastiche. And a cover of Pink Floyd's "Echoes" (thankfully trimmed down from the original 23 minutes) isn't all that exciting, especially on such a short record.
Given that this is the second full-length release from a relatively young band-- and its first to incorporate an extremely distinctive vocalist-- Love's Miracle is hardly disappointing. Rather than pigeonholing themselves via Yow's former band, Qui draw from a broad and inclusive history of noisemakers old and new. Yes, Love's Miracle is more than a little bit scattered. But it's refreshing to hear a band that's still interested in pushing people's buttons, fucking around but playing well, and not worrying about being all things to all people.
