1. Paperback Bible
2. Prepared
3. Rise And Fall Of The Letter P
4. Day Without Glasses
5. Beers Before The Barbican
6. I Would Have Waited Here All Day
7. Crackers
8. Fear
9. Short
10. The Decline Of Country And Western Civilization
Lambchop were truly without precedent when they came straight out of
Nashville way back in 1994. Oddly, they were initially seen as just
another alt.country band. That's like suggesting that Nirvana
were just another grunge act. There was always much more to them than a
few musical motifs and a geographical location.
From the beginning Kurt
Wagner could write songs that showed his contempories up as callow and
self obsessed. Add to such gilt edged song writing a musical collective
that played with the power and restraint of a Stax house band and you
have musical heaven.
Wagner's ability to ring poetry out of the mundane, turn the prosaic
into art has been a constant theme in the bands work. The opening track
on Damaged, Paperback Bible, is a classic example of this. The lyric a
patchwork of verbatim calls to a radio show swap shop where people
trade unwanted items. It finds beauty and pathos in the discarded
flotsam and jetsam of everyday life. So far then so Lambchop, but really
it's a false start as Damaged is the most personal record that Kurt
Wagner has composed.
Since the sprawling Aw C'mon / No You C'mon Wagner's life has been
touched by major illness. First a mouth cyst so aggressive that it
needed to be repaired by a transplanted bone from his hip followed by a
brush with cancer. That this has resulted in a little more
introspection seems quite natural.
For all its use of the first person narrative and the subject matter
Damaged is not a somber or morbid listen. The music is full of
wonderful light touches; the filigree of bells and electronics at the
end of Prepared (2); the bass and piano interplay on Crackers; the
swirl electronic ambience on Fear; the perfect use of strings
throughout.
If it wasn't for Wagner's denials that Damaged isn't his break up
record in the style of Bob Dylan's Blood on The Tracks then you
would think that his marriage has suffered like his health. The lyrics
are oblique, blurred Polaroid's that give away just enough information
to gauge the mood but keep you coming back to unpick their secrets. You
can sense, feel, a fraying of the fabric of life.
"Now it's time to
terminate our trust, even though to you and me that doesn't matter
much," cuts through Short, a bleak admission of a relationship shattered
by infidelity. Fear contains the couplet: "I know your bored, lets
take a walk and bring the dog," set against a piano melody that is like
a sad reflection, a smile in the bar room mirror. It sums up those
moments that turn love into indifference.
For a writer with the skill of Wagner the use of the first person is
just a tool in his arsenal. The striking I Would Have Waited All Day
was written for Candi Staton's recent LP. Based around a pithy
observation lyric about the day in the life of a house wife, it is sung
from the woman's perspective. The crystal pedal steel guitar and
trombones add a southern soul feel to the track. As a testament to the
bands skills it can't be bettered. Somehow the subject matter or the
delivery don't jar, which is quite some feat. It proves that Wagner can
slip inside the head of his subjects with a novelist's precision.
Are they a country band playing alt.rock or an alt.rock band
playing country? These questions are pointless. They are simply
and sublimely Lambchop, and we are lucky to have them.
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out this week:
