•
Rating: How can a band of thirteen members make music that's so quiet?
I would really like to ask Kurt Wagner that, who, with his band Lambchop, in 2002 released this masterpiece called "Is A Woman".
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. What Lambchop achieves is fundamentally music where sound is subtracted rather than added, where silence itself is a musical instrument and an integral part.
All elements are used sparingly, yet they merge to create a sound that seems to fill everything around it with its strength. The result is something for which any comment may seem superfluous, so difficult is it to describe the greatness of "Is A Woman".
Kurt Wagner's voice, warmer and more enveloping than ever, is that of a soul crooner who, more than singing, recites his stories, and perfectly matches the country, soul, and jazz elements of the band's sound. The progression of the tracks is slow, almost lazy, but with a strong emotional impact, and as you listen, you find yourself almost captivated by such majestic grandeur: it's almost as if, at the precise moment of listening, no other music exists in the world outside that played by Lambchop, so strong is this band's ability to completely absorb the listener.
In "My Blue Wave," it almost feels like you can hear the wind blowing, and Wagner exposes himself, telling his whole story, accompanied by a serene piano backdrop: simply magnificent. "Autumn's Vicar" is also remarkable, more strictly soul, but soul as interpreted by a great indie rock band.
The entire album is of unparalleled quality, with a ray of sunshine peeking through, constituted by the almost reggae title track "Is A Woman," possessing immense class; nonetheless, it is necessary to acknowledge the greatness of the entire work, and it almost does it a disservice to highlight only a few tracks, because the true strength of the album is that all the tracks form an inseparable whole, where each reinforces the others and represents their ideal completion. Unreachable.
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
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By vonhesse
Lambchop has created a true masterpiece of rare and unparalleled beauty, capable of moving forward without ever changing its pace.
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.
