Lady from Shanghai

With bandleader and chief warbler David Thomas leading a revolving door of group members since 1978, Pere Ubu has remained a hugely influential musical entity in the post-punk years. After all this time, Lady from Shanghai may be the Ubu Dance Party record fans have been waiting for. They (okay, we) don't care much for typical nightclub fare. Give 'em spastic, give 'em skronky, give 'em impenetrable—set to any kind of rhythmic clatter—and dance they will. This collection has plenty of rhythmic clatter. It's full of linoleum-carving snare drum and bass grooves, paving the way for eerie synths, Hitchcockian strings, shattering cymbals, wicked and plotting woodwinds, and Thomas' own crazily careening vocals. Various tracks here produce scene-stealing moments: Pere Ubu undoes Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" ("go to he-eelll") on the chameleonic opening track, "Thanks." Thomas plaintively insists "I never wanted to spoil your party" on the jazzy, see-sawing "Free White." And on the serpentine "Mandy," he creepily intones: "Won't you come out to play?"