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Rating: It is not uncommon for the paths of music and literature to intersect. What is rarer is that a book read years ago, of which one had even forgotten the existence, comes back to life on an autumn evening, among the notes of a newly released album that one is about to listen to for the first time, with a mix of skepticism and curiosity.
Yet, this is what can happen if the album in question is "Roots and Crowns" by Califone and the book mentioned is "Gli Angeli Ribelli" by Robert Davies. Both, album and book, may be unfamiliar to most, but they are two little gems, perhaps just somewhat neglected in their respective fields.
The bond that connects them is that expression, "Roots and Crowns," which gives the album its title and which we find in a dialogue in the book between the protagonist Parlabane, a semi-alcoholic vagabond, former monk, and former brilliant university professor, and Maria, a young and beautiful philosophy researcher who lives in conflict with her gypsy origins: "You are trying to tear them away (...), but my advice, dear, is that you learn from the trees and let your roots feed your crown" (let your roots feed your crown). In this work, steeped in philosophy and dark humor, teeming with unforgettable characters who represent the quintessence of tragicomedy (how not to mention the professor who has been dedicated solely to the study of feces for decades), the role of the narrator is assigned to a different character in each chapter, ultimately creating in the reader a pleasant sense of alienation.
And it is perhaps that same sensation of sweet bewilderment that one feels listening to "Roots and Crowns," the new work by Tim Rutili and his Califone, who have often cited Davies's novel as their source of inspiration for this album. Califone's roots are in the folk music of deep America, a burdensome yet indispensable past that, following Parlabane's advice to the beautiful Maria, they have chosen to retrieve and pay homage to, only to immediately transcend it. The ancestral sounds of American folk music are the sap that feeds the branches of experimentalism, the most evident outward aspect with which Califone presents themselves to the listener.
What ensues is "Spider's House" a wobbly neo-folk ballad, in which every instrument, from strummed guitars to the double bass, from percussion to the trumpet and trombone, seems to pursue its own personal rhythm regardless of the rest. They are the unsettling and dreamlike images of "The Eyes in the Crusades", a distant dialogue between acoustic and electric guitars. The influences of Low and Wilco are undeniable in tracks like "A Chinese Actor" and "3 Legged Animals" and paradoxically (for an album of extreme originality like this) the best moment is represented by a cover, "The Orchids" by Psychic T.V., in which the more typically acoustic and melodic soul finds the perfect complement in the distortions and sound effects that weave their webs, only seemingly in the background.
"Roots & Crowns" is undoubtedly an album that defies categorization, one that cannot simply be liked or disliked, because it eludes most aesthetic standards and criteria. There are albums you would never add to your "favorites" lists and that you would want to share with as few people as possible, because they are too intimate and carry within them a piece of your memories. For the author, "Roots & Crowns" by Califone is one of those albums.
But this, ultimately, is a bit of a personal story. And perhaps it should not have been told.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Pink & Sour (04:15)
along your skin lost my language black lip and red carnation safe house safe tap shoes break union station marble wrapped in malpractice quiet in the sway
oooo-
sing to me pink and sour
oooo-
drop down drop down
de-sung ribcages shelter
wound river languid
husk of old jet
sweet light tavern in the morning
taxi driver silent hard long hands
oooo-
kill the kitchen kitchen light
oooo-
drop down drop down safe house dead trying to whisper a soft vaccination cotton in the calm along your side lost my language on sand and smoke foundation loose in the sway oooo-sing to me pink and sour oooo-kill the kitchen kitchen light
02 Spider's House (03:49)
the icicles chime
fingerings lost
in the motions of our hands
sit just as you are
lost in the crime
carry the choir
age and peel
after the quiet bleeds
peel and age
familiar peace
in the pain
pulling you wrong
in soft belief and midnight
finish a violent quiet freeze
the carnival fighters are
sharing a bed tonight
bruised in the hay
the circle around the brawl divides
in frozen rain
on spider's house
after the quiet bleeds
peel and age
familiar peace
in the pain
raindrops tremble
and wait to freeze
on spiders house
03 Sunday Noises (02:52)
the violins collide into a rabbit chase a lost try lay easy now in warmer hours and steal back the century the open window lets it in sunday noises scratch you awake our mice and skulls old wives projected on the black sand thin my blood california if we ever get to home plant myself among the weeds and pray the violins collide into a rabbit chase of careful words plant you deep down in the clay
06 Our Kitten Sees Ghosts (02:49)
scratched and bit crawl out of the faultline this book is the mask on the bride circle til the engine dies tail high let it lay burn our dead shin high it's almost surgical the way you shatter when you hit the water drawn on the window steam claws on sleep addiction this conversation is the dust on anything slow and green burn our dead this unwilling is the way you shatter when you hit the water
08 The Orchids (02:57)
When all the numbers swim together and all the shadows settle
When doors forced open shut again a flytrap and a petal
My eyes burn and claws rush in to fill them
And in the morning after the night i fall in love with the light
It is so clear i realize and here at last i have my eyes
When all the figures sound retreat the soft skin starts to shrivel
When dreams made real become less sweet the orchid and the metal
My sex turns and claws rush in to spill them
And in the morning after the night i fall in love with the light
It is so pure i can arrive without the fear of seeing my eyes
When all the characters full size and every moon is level
When all the spirits burn in lies as center grief by steel
My eyes burn and claws rush in to fill them
But in the morning after the night i fall in love with the light
It is so clear i realize and now at last i have my eyes
09 Burned by the Christians (03:57)
wire in the teeth
while we warm twine
while we breathe
skip notes and bless
where you been
we lose days
-broke hearts are whole
or burned by the christians recline
held under your tongue like a tiny stone
carried home
sung throated air down your spine crown cooks light
we wolfed and whale bellied on
we shone down
blinder and winterless days
lost a black ocean recline
held under your tongue like a tiny stone
paid and gone
-broke hearts are whole
or burned by the christians recline
held under your tongue like a tiny stone
carried home
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