Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls – “Clean”

Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls – “Clean” – Single Review

Oh my…I’ve got so many thoughts about this.

To start, I suppose I’ll say that whenever I get new music, that’s the assignment, you know what I mean?  I have access to the whole back catalog for any given artist or band the same as the rest of you would out there on streaming services and whatnot, but it’s actually quite rare that I’ll go back and have a very large peek at what’s been out there in most cases.  That being said, when I put on “Clean” by Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls, it made me smile, because I used to make tunes like this myself way back in the day.  Tracks that are ultimately more of a vehicle for poetry or the simple desire to be poetic…that kind of thing.  Artists just gotta be artists sometimes – I think that’s fair, don’t you?  Sometimes it’s about more than just writing another song…sometimes it’s merely a matter of finding a space to express ourselves.  I respect that.  I know there’s a time and place for that, and I’m always objective about what would or wouldn’t appeal to the masses out there, but in terms of an artist discovering who they are and what they can do, any act of creating and expression is an invaluable exercise in growth and artistic evolution.

I did get freakin’ curious though, yes indeed.  As I listened to “Clean,” I did start to wonder if this was a one-off moment, or if this is what it is and Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls fully intended things to be as they are on a more regular basis.  So I started poking around in the back catalog – and you know something folks?  It HAS always been like this, more or less.  I’m not going to sit here and claim I had time to listen to the whole catalog, but from what I had a listen to, you can hear a similar approach being taken to the material throughout the years.  Here’s the fun part though…how many years has Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls been releasing music for, you ask?  How about the better part of EIGHTEEN YEARS.  The music is officially old enough to graduate now, and it’s already been driving for a couple of years as well – and that’ll strike many of you as outright crazy when you have a listen to “Clean.”  Even I’d have assumed that this was a track more towards the early side of a career as opposed to being eighteen years in, but that’s really not the case.  Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls has been out here doin’ what it does for more than a minute y’all…so we have to assume that what you’re hearing on “Clean” is the sound that it’s aiming for.

As a dude that grew up listening to all kinds of strange things, I can hang with a track like this – though I’d be the first to tell you it’s not going to be for everyone.  All those years in the trenches listening to experimental music like King Missile prepared me for moments like this one.  Heck, it’s what prepared me to make similar stuff myself back when I was still making music.  Not everything in life needs to be linear…not everything needs to make sense.  Something like Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls might not end up being considered for everyday consumption, but it’s quirky projects like this that can make our world a better place & our lives a richer experience, simply as a result of having crossed paths with it.  So that’s positive.  I also really like the poetic aspect of a track like “Clean” as well – even that one line that shows up more than others, where you’ll hear that “we are all lab rats” – I dig that…it’s effective imagery, and it’s also an insightful line if you ask me.  Or how about “California is one big experiment on a cold ice winter day?”  From my perspective, that’s a cool line too…it makes you think.  “Clean” is arguably not the happiest tune you’re going to hear this year on a lyrical level I suppose, but it’s performed with joy.

Now…as to whether or not the joy of creating art is going to resonate with everyone out there…that’s probably a whole other story.  Again, if the comparison of King Missile carries any weight, we kind of already know where the ceiling would be for a project like Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls at the heights of its maximum potential.  As long as that’s cool with CPKD, then who would any of us be to stop Zachary Chacon, the man behind the music, from doing what he loves to do, right?  If he’s looking to branch out into more accessible terrain, obviously there’s a tremendous amount of work to be done, but I don’t get the sense that that’s what he’s aiming to create.  Instead, you get more niche material like “Clean” that is bound to appeal to some out there, even if it will continue to elude the masses.  I don’t have a ton of advice on how to go about improving on something that someone loves doing, you feel me?  Let’em be, I say.  I could tell Zachary there’s still plenty of room in the production to get more out of his music, but I feel like he’s just fine & thriving in his own lo-fi design.  The opportunities exist to advance and evolve in his craft if that’s something he wants to do.  As for the way things are…”Clean” is a tough ask, even for me when it comes right down to it.  I appreciate a lot of the low-key noise-rock ideas here, but they do often come across as layered ideas that don’t quite interact with each other as much as they likely should…listening to “Clean” would be more akin to listening to a collection of sounds placed together, rather than feeling like every part or piece of the song serves a greater purpose – make sense?  Like I’ve been saying from the get-go…the music itself is much more of a vehicle for Chacon to say what he wants to say – and there’s value in that.  Lyrically, I think the guy’s great…that’s probably the main identifiable strength if I’m being honest with ya.  Guitar-wise…some of these frequencies and tones he’ll use are delightfully addictive at their best, and there are moments where he’s likely coloring way too far outside of the lines for the masses to come along for the ride.  The beat is a sample from what I’ve read…no huge issue there…the bass is…hmm…uniquely sporadic, let’s put it that way…and the keyboard/synth elements can often be a bit overpowering.  You have to wonder if a little less would have equaled a little more when it comes to a track like “Clean,” but at the same time, you have to acknowledge what might be happy accidents that occur along the way, like the transition around the ninety-second mark in this tune, which I really like.  What I’d simply want in listening to a track like “Clean” is a little more cohesion in the mix…something to bring it all together in terms of where things sit in the recording.  Right now, it feels like the elements of the music are jockeying for position in terms of what we hear, with the vocals on top by a fair margin…so rather than giving you that all-encompassing feeling like a song that contains elements that all belong together, “Clean” feels like it’s clashing with itself as you listen to it.  Think of it as more like a Spoken Word project rather than something you’ll be able to turn up and sing along with and I’m sure you’ll be okay.  I’ll definitely remember the experience of listening to Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls, without question.  I think we all would if I’m being real with ya.  As to whether or not we’ll go back for another spin…time will tell…CPKD is pretty hard to love, but art like this still has a place in this world.

Find out more about Cabbage Patch Kill Dolls from the official page at Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/CabbagePatchKillDolls

IF YOU WEREN’T SO BUSY READING THIS SENTENCE, you could be CLICKING THIS instead to learn more about how to be the next artist or band featured here at sleepingbagstudios!