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Rating: 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.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 My Blue Wave (07:52)
You lay around the house
Nothing much to bark about
Jump onto the bed
Just bones and squirrels inside your head
This is the only life I see
For you
And if I gave a crap
Would that show you where my head is at
I would ride the moon
And even if it comes too soon
I could fall for you
And you could fall for me
So we go all to the shows
And happiness is all we know
How it got to you
And how it got to me too
I wish I never knew
About my blue wave
William called and tried to tell me
That his sister's boyfriend has just died
He's not sure what to do
And I'm not sure what to tell him he should do
Sometimes William, we're just screwed
In my blue wave
So what's the girl to do
Sits on the couch and she's feeling blue
Shakes it in the cup
And she doesn't mind if it stays up
Up up oh - never mind the world
My blue girl
And the best is yet to come
You may think you are the only one
To never get it right
Just stick around on this lovely night
And we may be amazed
By my blue wave
To conclude this interview
Many facts and fictions you construe
The dog gives you the paw
You pat his head and you wipe his jaw
He's the only one who knew
About my blue wave
04 I Can Hardly Spell My Name (03:24)
Teardrops from a shadow
This tongue starts to waggle
That's a lovely dress yo'
And oh that's just "titian"
And it's not true you know you swear
And all by yourself
As time delivers for a while now
This may not appeal to you
But i can hardly spell my name
A siamese is lonely also
And i've been waiting all my life
In spite of this arrangement,
Moderation on vacation
It's time we all settled down
05 Autumn's Vicar (04:16)
Chickadee tosses leaves out of her nester
My uncle's uncle's uncles fester
To chesnutt's empty sound
One by one they hit the ground
It's fall and it's warm
And i've got a sweater
Tell me nothing nothing's better
The flowers wilt from the weight of the leaves
But it's not the cold
It's the dryness
That makes it so, (groovy)
Believe you me
Believe me you
Let it roll
God cues his trees to drop their load
I've got some used cowboy boots
You've got some weed
It's a noisy cracked accumulation
Of golden brown, mr. Brown's first born
Can anyone get it
It's not too obvious
Two friends locked in a dutch romance
It's the angry middle aged distraction
Your postman stumbles in the yard
With a message long
You communicate through song
And take it up with the vicar
Believe you me
Believe me you
Grateful for the score
The nuts today you store
Could come in handy in the future
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By federicozz
Lambchop’s secret is knowing how to control silence, bending it to their needs and cleverly dosing it to make their tracks even more evocative.
It’s almost as if, at the precise moment of listening, no other music exists in the world outside that played by Lambchop.
