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| Track list: 1. Being Tyler 2. Four Pounds in Two Days 3. Steve McQueen 4. The Lone Official 5. Something's Going On 6. Nothing but a Blur From a Bullet Train 7. Each Time I Bring It Up It Seems to Bring You Down 8. Timothy B. Schmidt 9. Women Help to Create the Kind of Men They Despise 10. I Hate Candy 11. I Haven't Heard a Word I've Said 12. Action Figure Running time: 44 minutes Released: 2004 |
Following the largesse of Christmas (way down on previous years; very little alcohol because I was driving home at the end of each day; not over-stuffed with food) I have split out the double album into its constituent parts. No You C'mon will appear much later. I fell in love with Lambchop's alt-country sound with Is A Woman, but recall being less than impressed with either part of this as a follow-up release. I remember virtually none of it, to be frank, and whilst I must have heard plenty of the songs here on random play over the last decade I am drawing a substantial blank on anything past that initial opinion. So this could be interesting.
The opening is different from what I would expect, a lot more orchestral. I like it - strong melody with a busy and well constructed general sound to back it up. Only... well, I keep waiting for it to grow, change and flourish. Whilst it does change, it feels too little too late, or in the wrong direction. It is a nice piece, but it disappoints through inhibition - a failure to go on to the grand things the opening lines hinted at. Ah well. It is an instrumental piece, and we do not get to hear Wagner's voice until track two. This is a short number, which works really well. It has an old movie score feel to it, and is gone before you know it whilst leaving a good impression. More songs should do that: impress a strong image on the listener and leave it with them rather than drawing it out, diluting the effect.
Lambchop are pretty recognisable through tempo as much as anything, a gentle sway, a hint of swagger in the cool of the vocal and separation between the melodies and the main structure of the songs. It is the vocal that really sells them for me, though. The strains and refrains are nice and all, but there is something about the delivery of their words that sticks with me and warms the cockles of my soul a little. Of course. With this project no sooner have I typed a paragraph based on the songs to date, the next one starts and blows my words out of the water. The Lone Official sounds nothing like what I expect from Lambchop and has very little in common with the attributes I just listed as their identifiers. I like that. That sense of surprise, that constantly having my opinions and thoughts challenged and changed. That seems to be the primary joy in a lot of these listens, quite apart from actually taking the time to try to appreciate what I have. That said, I do not like the tune much. It is another instrumental, a bit faster, but with a dull structure and the same repetition and failure to evolve as was evident in Being Tyler, so I am grateful when the vocals come back with Something's Going On.
I glance at the track list, and find we are entering a zone of interesting titles after this song which, whilst lyrically very boring, does return to the exquisitely crafted musical space that originally sold me on Lambchop. Soft strings, percussive guitar, laid back gravel voice - they add up to a comfort sound. I find myself surprised that I do not listen to them more, and have not picked up any releases since Aw C'mon/No You C'mon. Maybe I should remedy that but there seem to have been quite a number...
I think maybe some of the reason is that the bits I like are the bits that tend to the samey. This runs counter to my normal self-image of my musical consumption, but as I age and examine what I like and why, a sense of familiarity is definitely one of the traits I now find endearing. I guess there is at least a grain of truth to the idea that you fix your musical tastes somewhere in your 20s - ancient history now; I have never liked that idea, but it is certainly true that I find less new stuff now that I used to. That idea saddens me.
Meanwhile Kurt has continued serenading in his distinctive style, the strings have continued somewhere over his shoulder and guitars and drums encircle him loosely and time has passed agreeably. The tracks whistle by - and not in an Andrew Bird kind of way - as most are fairly short and sweet. That, too, is a nice touch that distinguishes it a little bit from Is A Woman, where longer tunes lent a different overall vibe. My inclination is to say that album is better than this one, but at this point it would be entirely based on memory and assumed familiarity; certainly it is fair to say that I appreciate the differences, even whilst liking this most based on some of that which is the same. Another difference here is the blend of instrumental pieces amongst the songs. Some work better than others, but it is a good way of changing up, breaking the mood and preventing every track blurring together.
Blurring together... hah. The second time I have been immediately contradicted by the experience. I have just somehow lost 1-3 tracks in a blur as my mind went elsewhere for a while and now the disc is almost done. I do not begrudge it that though, for though it is certainly not a quality that one would actively look for, the fact that nothing bad jumped out to break the reverie I found myself in at least means that a consistent level was maintained. I am thinking though that blurring is probably one of the reasons that I have not listened more. To contrast, I have been listening to Fiona Apple's early albums in the car over Christmas and there is no way those songs blur at all. Two albums of superb songs with a strong voice and distinct characteristics, both Tidal and When the Pawn... are discs that I return to time and again because they offer something more than just the familiarity that is the biggest draw here.
I have, in the end, decided to pick up some more Lambchop releases, but I left others based on reviews of the same sameness that I have identified as liking here. The problem with sameness is that it is OK within an album, but I do not need it across albums. Sameness is a reason to stick, not to twist. I hope the purchases will justify themselves, but if not they will likely slot in to a nice comfortable place to blur into what I have just been through.
The opening is different from what I would expect, a lot more orchestral. I like it - strong melody with a busy and well constructed general sound to back it up. Only... well, I keep waiting for it to grow, change and flourish. Whilst it does change, it feels too little too late, or in the wrong direction. It is a nice piece, but it disappoints through inhibition - a failure to go on to the grand things the opening lines hinted at. Ah well. It is an instrumental piece, and we do not get to hear Wagner's voice until track two. This is a short number, which works really well. It has an old movie score feel to it, and is gone before you know it whilst leaving a good impression. More songs should do that: impress a strong image on the listener and leave it with them rather than drawing it out, diluting the effect.
Lambchop are pretty recognisable through tempo as much as anything, a gentle sway, a hint of swagger in the cool of the vocal and separation between the melodies and the main structure of the songs. It is the vocal that really sells them for me, though. The strains and refrains are nice and all, but there is something about the delivery of their words that sticks with me and warms the cockles of my soul a little. Of course. With this project no sooner have I typed a paragraph based on the songs to date, the next one starts and blows my words out of the water. The Lone Official sounds nothing like what I expect from Lambchop and has very little in common with the attributes I just listed as their identifiers. I like that. That sense of surprise, that constantly having my opinions and thoughts challenged and changed. That seems to be the primary joy in a lot of these listens, quite apart from actually taking the time to try to appreciate what I have. That said, I do not like the tune much. It is another instrumental, a bit faster, but with a dull structure and the same repetition and failure to evolve as was evident in Being Tyler, so I am grateful when the vocals come back with Something's Going On.
I glance at the track list, and find we are entering a zone of interesting titles after this song which, whilst lyrically very boring, does return to the exquisitely crafted musical space that originally sold me on Lambchop. Soft strings, percussive guitar, laid back gravel voice - they add up to a comfort sound. I find myself surprised that I do not listen to them more, and have not picked up any releases since Aw C'mon/No You C'mon. Maybe I should remedy that but there seem to have been quite a number...
I think maybe some of the reason is that the bits I like are the bits that tend to the samey. This runs counter to my normal self-image of my musical consumption, but as I age and examine what I like and why, a sense of familiarity is definitely one of the traits I now find endearing. I guess there is at least a grain of truth to the idea that you fix your musical tastes somewhere in your 20s - ancient history now; I have never liked that idea, but it is certainly true that I find less new stuff now that I used to. That idea saddens me.
Meanwhile Kurt has continued serenading in his distinctive style, the strings have continued somewhere over his shoulder and guitars and drums encircle him loosely and time has passed agreeably. The tracks whistle by - and not in an Andrew Bird kind of way - as most are fairly short and sweet. That, too, is a nice touch that distinguishes it a little bit from Is A Woman, where longer tunes lent a different overall vibe. My inclination is to say that album is better than this one, but at this point it would be entirely based on memory and assumed familiarity; certainly it is fair to say that I appreciate the differences, even whilst liking this most based on some of that which is the same. Another difference here is the blend of instrumental pieces amongst the songs. Some work better than others, but it is a good way of changing up, breaking the mood and preventing every track blurring together.
Blurring together... hah. The second time I have been immediately contradicted by the experience. I have just somehow lost 1-3 tracks in a blur as my mind went elsewhere for a while and now the disc is almost done. I do not begrudge it that though, for though it is certainly not a quality that one would actively look for, the fact that nothing bad jumped out to break the reverie I found myself in at least means that a consistent level was maintained. I am thinking though that blurring is probably one of the reasons that I have not listened more. To contrast, I have been listening to Fiona Apple's early albums in the car over Christmas and there is no way those songs blur at all. Two albums of superb songs with a strong voice and distinct characteristics, both Tidal and When the Pawn... are discs that I return to time and again because they offer something more than just the familiarity that is the biggest draw here.
I have, in the end, decided to pick up some more Lambchop releases, but I left others based on reviews of the same sameness that I have identified as liking here. The problem with sameness is that it is OK within an album, but I do not need it across albums. Sameness is a reason to stick, not to twist. I hope the purchases will justify themselves, but if not they will likely slot in to a nice comfortable place to blur into what I have just been through.
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