Corpse Flower

The juxtaposition between sophisticated beauty and absurd crassness in *Corpse Flower* is so jarring that listening to this album is at once deeply enjoyable, confounding, and hilarious. It’s a collaboration between Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantômas, Tomahawk, Mr. Bungle et al.) and Jean-Paul Vannier, a septuagenarian legend of French pop. The pair met while performing a tribute to Serge Gainsbourg. Unlike *Mondo Cane*, Patton’s 2010 exploration of vintage Italian pop, there’s nothing traditional about these songs. The contradictions begin with the title—a corpse flower is a massive, colorful plant with the scent of a rotting corpse (or, as Patton says on the title track, “Soft petals, rotten flesh, sweet sick perfume…come and get it”). Romantic melodies and sweeping string orchestration are paired with moments of explosive atonality and lyrics such as “When I drink too much, I shit my pants.” Opener “Ballade C.3.3.” places excerpts from Oscar Wilde’s bleak *Ballad of Reading Gaol* over a cool, low-slung groove. And “A Schoolgirl’s Day” is ominous yet completely innocent, with Patton’s growling vocals depicting, literally, a schoolgirl’s day (“8:30 at school, she learns grammar, history, and geography… 11:30 she goes home for lunch… 3:15 during the break, she plays in the playground, walks up and down with the other girls”). Nothing is quite right on *Corpse Flower*, but that\'s how it\'s supposed to be.

Though few would have conceived of it beforehand, a collaboration between French composer and arranger Jean-Claude Vannier and American singer, lyricist, songwriter, and producer Mike Patton finds them a perfectly matched pair of musical reprobates.

There really is no musician with as vast of a range of skills and styles as Mike Patton, and his latest collaborative album with French musi...

Corpse Flower, the debut collaboration by two aged dudes Mike Patton of Faith No More and French composer Jean-Claude Vannier.

A review of Corpse Flower by Mike Patton and Jean-Claude Vannier, available September 13th worldwide via Ipecac Recordings.