This Week: Lambchop's blank spaces, Stephin Merritt's letdown, and Drive-by Truckers' improbable gem.
Lambchop
Is a Woman (Merge)
The first few listens of Lambchop's Is a Woman drift by in an infuriating haze. The songs seem little more than a hum; Kurt Wagner's ragged, husky voice, like a restrained Tom Waits, hovers over barely audible piano chords and languid, jazzy guitar, interspersed with occasional flurries of vibraphone, horns, an organ, and bells. After four or five times through, though, the melodies assert themselves, and Wagner's detachment—the long pauses and speak-sing intonation—isn't so much tortuous as tortured, full of desperation and loneliness that's underscored by the matter-of-fact, unsentimental delivery. The twang of Lambchop's earlier, country-ish records is entirely gone, replaced by a hard-edged, brittle and bleak sophistication.
Wagner's lyrics are impressionistic little poems, snapshot images of him alone, flicking cigarettes and riding buses in Barcelona. The stories behind these pictures are never filled in, but the long, eloquent passages of chamber pop that accompany the desolate pictures give Is a Woman a devastating wallop.
Ultimately, it's the blank spaces, the things that are left unsaid or unexplained, that give it such emotional impact.
—Matthew T. Everett
Stephin Merritt
Eban & Charley (Merge)
Eban & Charley is a soundtrack to an independent movie that has been described as a gay-themed Lolita. Stephin Merritt's merits as one of the finest pop composers of our century guide me to assume the movie is about two guys who do nothing at all but listen to clocks and music boxes, and are generally perfect for each other because they're both so incredibly dull.
Of the six actual songs that are on this soundtrack, most sound like unfinished outtakes from the 69 Love Songs recording sessions, which Merritt single-handedly wrote for his main alter-ego, The Magnetic Fields. The one sincere song on this album is "This Little Ukulele." Stephin's baritone sings to a solo uke, lamenting the absence of an orchestra to accentuate his feelings. But "Water Torture," with the lyrics, "Lorraine MacLean's strange paintings change the rain-stained Main terrain," seem to serve no purpose at all but to show off Stephin's talent for rhyming.
Then there are six tracks that go like this: click clack click clack tick tock tick tock tick clack click tock tick tock tick tock click clock click clock tick tock tick tock click clack click clack tick tock tick tock tock tock tick tock click clock clock clock.
The incessant clacking and whirring overshadow the actual songs, making the rest of the CD practically unlistenable.
Eban & Charley is a difficult disappointment to bear, as Stephin is my all-time favorite. But I still want to marry him.
—Travis Gray
Drive-By Truckers
Southern Rock Opera (Soul Dump Records)
With the release of Southern Rock Opera, the Drive-By Truckers turn what sounds like a flaky idea—a two-disc set about growing up as a rock 'n' roller in the 1970s South with the epic saga of Lynyrd Skynyrd serving as martyrs for the cause—into gold. Sure, one would probably expect some kind of muscleheaded caricature of redneck rock from this concept. Instead, the 'Truckers deliver a thoughtful, artfully wrought examination of the impact of rock 'n' roll from a Southern perspective.
The very idea of a rock opera seems overblown. But the DBT's sincere reverence for the subject matter shines through. What's more, the band truly creates an authentic Southern rock sound that is lightyears ahead of the usual horde of upper middle class wannabes mining the seemingly endless vein of white-trash trailerpark kitsch.
Southern Rock Opera examines the rock 'n' roll experience through the eyes of a Southern youth instead of dealing only with the somewhat limited "Southern rock" genre. Of course, the legend of the Van Zandt brothers fits the Greek tragedy mode too well to be denied. But other non-Southern rockers of the mid-'70s are also deified: Ozzy Osbourne sideman Randy Rhodes (who, incidentally, played his last concert in Knoxville), Blue Oyster Cult, and (who else?) Bon Scott. Alabama Governor George Wallace earns his mention as well.
The concept is interesting, the band has its three-guitar attack honed to perfection (a la Skynyrd) and the inspiration level is at a peak. This convergence of ideas and inspiration yields a musical work that succeeds in a theatrical sense and as separate songs. The bottom line is that Southern Rock Opera is exceptionally good music.
—John Sewell
January 14, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 7
© 2002 Metro Pulse
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