Lambchop
Is A Woman

THE REVIEW

It is a true "full immersion" into soft, dreamy, and decadent atmospheres, this "Is a Woman," the sixth studio work by Lambchop's Kurt Wagner. Composed for an orchestra of eighteen elements, the album aimed to recreate sounds and atmospheres of an old smoky and intimate jazz club, evoking the spirit of early Tom Waits' "Closing Time" or Leonard Cohen's "The Future".

A classical yet understated piano, brushes and light guitar arpeggios just hinted at, distant and never intrusive trumpets; these are the basic ingredients for a soft and minimalist setting in which fits perfectly the splendid, rich, and anguished voice of Kurt Wagner, capable of sending sudden chills and truly warming even the most reluctant soul. Tony Crow's piano acts as the "master of ceremonies," setting the tone for the different airs of the pieces, accompanying from time to time acoustic and electric guitars, saxophones, imperceptible electronic reverbs, and velvety percussion in an overall atmosphere always both gathered and expansive. From the sad "The Daily Growl" to the melancholic and poignant "The New Cobweb Summer" and "My Blue Wave," from the semi-country ballad "Flick" to the nocturnal blues of "The Old Matchbook Trick" and "Caterpillar," from the intimate western-like "I Can Hardly Spell My Name" and "Is A Woman" to the refined soul of "D. Scott Parsley." These are timeless and ageless tracks, almost immobile and inert, slipping away one after the other like glasses of whiskey drunk too quickly to forget someone or something, in seedy and dark places with no possibility of redemption. Yet the emotions are all there, and Wagner confirms himself as a dark and seductive "crooner," riding on the wave of the best Cohen or the most torn and dark Nick Cave.

With this album, Lambchop has created a true masterpiece of rare and unparalleled beauty, capable of moving forward without ever changing its pace, with the risk of almost never noticing the difference between one track and another: like small mosaics within a larger project, one detail linked to another in a picture of rare delicacy. A work to listen to and relisten to, giving it all the time it needs, without haste and without any anxiety. Only then, after several listens, will "the songs" and the stories steeped in poignant melancholy, seasoned with an obsessive attention to style and class, to which our ones never give up, emerge. However, you must be patient and let the album "grow" and be able to face almost an hour of music that almost does not move from the golden cage in which it maneuvers. "Is a Woman" remains a "great auteur performance," so beautiful and "perfect" as to be a challenging legacy for those who will follow the same path. Not surprisingly, the double album that will follow under the Lambchop name will only be a long and weak blurred copy of something already perfectly expressed here.