Lambchop
Thriller
»
Lambchop
Thriller
Merge, 1997
RiYL: Tom Marshall, Vic Chesnutt, East River Pipe |
This month I was astonished to find that the library had a copy of Lambchop's third full-length release, Thriller. It's a short drive from the library to my house, so I when I put a newly borrowed CD in for the drive home, I always skip ahead to a track that makes me want to roll down the windows and crank the volume. Track 2 on Thriller, "Your Fucking Sunny Day," provided the music for a truly enjoyable drive home... "Bent the hose to stop the sprinkler / hosin' off the sidewalk / what does it say? / Your fucking sunny day." "Oh yes," I said to myself, "Lambchop has done it again."
Truly, Thriller is too diverse an album to label, but people try: Alt.Country (if you think that any band with a pedal-steel guitar should be called country), Chamber Pop, Indie Rock, and Soul-Country, to name a few. All those labels work at times, depending on which track is playing. But don't take me to mean that Thriller is a disjointed collection, because the album actually flows very well, even if it does keep you guessing from song to song. The butter that holds it all together is the sound that is distinctly and defiantly Lambchop -- lush sounds, quirky horns, mind-twisting lyrics, and Kurt Wagner's smoky voice.
The album kicks off with a hushed little number called "My Face Your Ass." Wagner spins a wonderful whirlpool of words, instantly reminding us why we love this band: "I wonder what would happen / if the world was in a wire / and the wire was in a spiral / round a burning ring of fire / and I wonder what would happen / if the fire was on the wane / and the wire was getting slower / and the ring was on a chain." Now that he mentions it, I've often wondered the very same thing.
The two songs that follow, the aforementioned "Your Fucking Sunny Day" and "Hey, Where's Your Girl," represent the up-beat portion of this recording. "Your Fucking Sunny Day" is a rollicking, soulful, funky song that just begs you to dance. There's even a Michael Jackson-esque "Ow!" to kick it off, and that is the only connection I find between this album and the other, better-selling Thriller. "Hey, Where's Your Girl," written by F.M. Cornog of East River Pipe, features an unstoppable pedal-steel/glockenspiel/horn section riff that really carries this song.
The rest of the album flows together as one long section of patient, spacious songs featuring muted horns and the ambient guitar styling of Marky Nevers. Kurt Wagner's voice rides the wave of sound with ease, excepting "Thriller" which is just peaceful, voice-less noise. Like Lambchop's latest offering, Is A Woman, the tendency here is to let this music blend into the background, but that is a mistake. The funky tunes are easy to love, but these quiet ones require a bit more effort. Thriller was really a practice for the mastery of space that the 'Chop has achieved on Is A Woman.
So, thanks to the Library, I was able to sample another Lambchop work of art, and I will definitely be purchasing this to make it a permanent part of my collection. That endorsement should speak for itself. If it doesn't, perhaps the 'Chop said it best themselves: It's so simple and so stupid, yet so steady. Are you ready?
JAKE MORRILL |