Review: Court and Spark, Bless You
This is a good album. It's so good I almost don't know what to say about it. I might even go so far as to say that this is a great album. Every single element: the music, the vocals, the tone, the production, the playing ... the whole thing is top notch. Those who have only been exposed to the Court & Spark via their previous album Ventura Whites are in for a shock: the register of M. C. Taylor's voice has dropped an octive, and the music has sloooowed down. The result, musically, recalls American Music Club more than Uncle Tupelo. This is a dark and vibrant album based on extremely skilled songwriting. I defy anyone not to have "Rooster Mountain" stuck in their head for days after one listen. "Fireworks" bounces along like the best Smog song Bill Callahan never got around to writing. "National Lights"' soaring melodies are filled out by former Byrd Gene Parsons' delicate mandolin and Wendy Allen's barely-there harmony vocals and the result is so damn listenable that I almost always have to replay the thing the second it's over. Just when you think whole album couldn't get any more impressive, along comes "Fade Out to Little Arrow," a slow, stoned epic that builds over the course of seven minutes to a horn-tinged slide guitar passage that's so beautiful that the first time I heard it I couldn't make myself get up from the couch. This is everything I've ever wanted Lambchop to be and more.

I have absolutely no idea what any of the songs are about because I can't force myself to pull the words away from the music, so cohesive is the package. What lyrics I'm able to jot down are like tenebrous telegraph missives from a remote and stranded Cormac McCarthy, trapped on the other side of an electrical storm, his syntax broken.

Labels: court and spark, reviews