Elizabeth Sharp is so downtown it hurts. She's the driving force behind Ill Ease, and I picture her in a leather jacket and shades, slumping over as she speaks, a smoker's hack interrupting her wry urban observations: "I like to ride the uppers and the downers/ I'm taking a ride at Rockefeller Center/ I like to get high at Rockefeller Center/ I go out of my mind at Rockefeller Center." These are the words to the song "Rockefeller Center," and they're sung by the detached, apathetic Sharp as the (oh, yes) Sonic Youth guitars (also played by Sharp) chime in the background. Boredom + Distortion = Big Apple Hip. It worked for Blonde Redhead, right?

Right. And it works for Ill Ease, kind of. As familiar as their sound is, it's still skillful in its execution. I like the loose, sloppy feel to the rhythms, like Sharp just got back from a long day drinking Robitussin and taking in the Kandinsky exhibit down at the Met. She plays almost everything here, and while the guitar tone owes a lot to Moore and Ranaldo, I have to admit that it still sounds cool. Dig that damaged downtown vibe, daddy-o. The lyrics, on the other hand, veer from bad teen poetry to evocative lyricism; "Rockefeller Center" is certainly cringe- inducing, but I like the groovy couplet on "Sicky's Groove" (yet another drug reference?) that goes: "The summer walls have heartbeats/ And the windows shake like skin."

So, it sounds good. But still, Ill Ease is a little too cool for me. Take the song "New York, London, Paris." The complete lyrics to this one are "New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Milan," and once again with the third generation Velvets guitars and the ennui. So what are we to think? Are these the places to be or is this some kind of barb against plasticity? Don't ask me, I'm just an aging dork raised in the Midwest. Go ask Elizabeth, when she's ten feet tall.

-Mark Richard-San