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Rating: This time it takes them from Tucson, Arizona, to the distant New Orleans; a journey from west to east, from the desert to the sea and the Mississippi River.
The new landscape, extremely different from the dusty roads Joey Burns and John Convertino were used to, establishes a give/receive relationship with the two. The sea often features in the album's tracks, the water, impacting people's lives and well represented in the wave motion of the cover art.
"Algiers," which is a neighborhood of New Orleans, gives a jolt to the duo's career. Without straying too far from the two previous works, "Garden Ruin" and "Carried to Dust," it raises the bar and aspires to become a staple of the genre.
A more carefree approach to writing the pieces, there are no experimental elements they accustomed us to in the past, but the album proceeds with an effective and relaxed rhythm and comes to an end almost unnoticed. Love songs and songs of hope, not to stop and look back, but to face the future without fear; an invitation that can also be extended to the residents of New Orleans, afflicted in the past by scourges difficult to forget.
The listening flows very well, divided into two parts by the title track, the only instrumental piece, but the two tracks that in my opinion concretely reflect the album's flow are Fortune Teller and Maybe On Monday. It is the Calexico-sound becoming accessible to the mainstream audience, songs that "stay".
There's the Spanish of No Te Vayas, with the main voice given to Jacob Valenzuela, already present for years in the live lineup of the group (he sang Ispiración in the previous album). And there's the Cuban rhythm that sneaks in at the beginning of Sinner In the Sea and bursts with that frenzied organ battling Burns' voice, akin to Nick Cave at this juncture. The Vanishing Mind closes the work with unsettling sounds.
In the Deluxe version of the album, we find the other side of Calexico: "Spiritoso", recorded live in Vienna and Potsdam accompanied by a symphony orchestra. The second disc includes both great pieces from the past and some tracks from "Algiers," which, revisited through strings, aspire to become almost a soundtrack for an old western film. In short, a gem not to be missed.
The group has opened up to new visitors, has grown, and has shown it can embark on an alternative path to the usual mariachi and folk-inspired pieces, spiced up with suggestive psychedelic experimentation. A path made of real songs, which have nothing to envy compared to those of the great American authors (and beyond) of the past.
Happy listening!
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Crystal Frontier (07:52)
Marco's shadow falls on the door
to the 7 lost cities of gold
finds a raven's head and rattler's tail
dead in his tracks, this godforsaken soul's
unwanted here and his ghost lingers for years
amalia's face hides behind the mask
sweating on the tv factory line
that smile on her face is starting to crack
while welding back the pieces of shattered heart
that's scattered out here, with the ghosts of her peers
searched for her lost love along the river of tears
at the end of the working week
when drunken worlds meet
both sides keeping a close eye
for a break in the line here...
on the crystal frontier
blood spills out on the streets
and bodies are missing for weeks
both sides keeping a close eye
watching the bullets fly here...
on the crystal frontier
ramón tightens up his leather belt
and slips through a hole in the fence
he can get you anything you want
might cost you a life, might cost you
the whole price of freedom here...
on the crystal frontier
16 Quattro (World Drifts In) (04:46)
love the run but not the race
all alone in a silent way
world drifts in and the world's a stranger
in a light, eclipsed and alienated
in a time, occupied and invaded
can't tell what's right, better hit the ground running
in the hills where the tall weed grows
hands are tied and won't let go
can't escape this place without leaving the world behind
in a light, ashamed and humiliated
in a time, sacrificed for the sake of trade
the soul is bent, feels the weight of truth
falling through
left behind, no choice but to run to the mountains
where no poppies grow, you have to hit the ground running
in a light, paralyzed and spirits fading
out of time, must decide to fall or run
into the eye, of the storm no sign or omen
make it right, or fall to the other side
where fields are burning
from the day you're born
you'll always hit the ground running
18 Black Heart (04:54)
spring is frozen now I'm stuck in low
wrapped with wire, tapped to the heart
can't find no poison, now I've got no cure
(the) fangs are stuck inside my skin
payne county line
watching unjust claims
one man's righteousness is another man's
long haul, sentence carried out
long haul, counting the miles
to the four corners of the world
spring is rusted shut, (faith's) coiled and cracked
apparitions worth their weight in gold
scratched in metal, name erodes away
hands are scarred, heart is charred
burnt though, and ashen
trip on fence post line
sifting through the remains
one man's close pursuit is another man's
last chance, make it through the divide
last chance, suffer the weight or get buried by this
black heart, sweeping over the land
black heart, crawling its way
to the four corners of the world
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