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Album Tue Jun 17 2008
Silver Jews draw from deeper well for new album
[Note: This review came to us from former Gapers Block: Transmission staffer Dan Snedigar.]
David Berman and unidentified pooch. (Photo by Brent Stewart)
Chicago's Drag City has a reputation for putting out challenging, diverse music, and plenty of Chicago scene superstar side projects. This week, the label cranks out the latest from poet David Berman's musical vehicle Silver Jews. Though occasionally and for the most part wrongfully categorized as a Stephen Malkmus sidecar, the Jews music has always trafficked in simple but potent music layered with some of the most intricate lyrics of the past few decades. On Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, the band's fifth full length effort, the music draws from a well that has seemingly deepened since the band started touring extensively after over a decade as something of a studio lark.
The music remains country-tinged, often sounding like background music in a David Lynch honky-tonk. Songs like “Suffering Jukebox," are musical oddities, sounding at once like modern Nashville pap, but maintaining a jewel-like clarity and a respectably poignant lyrical punch. “Party Barge," borrows notes from the Rolling Stones and maintains an almost Jimmy Buffet-like irreverence while weaving in shore sounds and driving guitars.
The shiny new production can at times be frustrating, leaving fans of the Silver Jews early work pining for the stripped down simplicity of albums like American Water, and while there may be as many near misses as hits, the album represents an interesting step forward. It shows a band coming into true professionalism musically while maintaining frontman Berman's lyrical voice, unmatched in modern music.
-Dan Snedigar
Dan was a Chicago resident until he recently moved to Montana where he's a freelance writer and attorney.