A definite thread radiates—the central thematic piece is scratch-happy opener, "Rainbowarriors," a Henry Darger/Care Bear fight song/talismanic anthem against outside forces ready to "molest and destroy" the dancing and laughing "rainbow spirits." Drab reality? Fatuous boredom? Whatever their form, "evil spirits" are warded off through shakers, a thousand and one cartoon sound effects (boing-boing), speak 'n' spell, synthy horn stuffs, and baying horses. Rainbows have made a showing on all of CocoRosie's records. Remember the fucking unicorns on the cover of Noah's Ark? One's emitting a psychic rainbow, another rainbow spit or snot or blood. It reminded me of Lisa Carver's Rollerderby zine: The mix of Dame Darcy fantasia, fashion (terry cloth, sparkles), sex, Suckdog performance days.

Here, sweetness is interrupted by wicked avenues, the exclamation "yeah, I suck dick," or turns of phrase like "in my heart a flower dies slow/ Like a campfire covered in piss, my love." These instances collide with the pixie dust, make sparks: Inevitably, even though the world of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (the characters, not the record) is painted in rainbows and made to resemble a garden of Eden, it's impossible getting back to it with our stained fingers and non-erasable pasts. That's the unavoidable sadness, as well as the gorgeously tarnished but incorruptible joy, that colors the album.