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Don't you wish you'd been the first kid on the block to hear
Leonard Cohen? If you mention Nick Cave to your
friends do they ask puzzled, "The bad what?" No, they
do not is the answer they give. Too bad for you then, my silly-bottomed
coffee jockey, because I've already heard The Thin Man
and you have not...well have you? First let us agree that the
accordion is recorded too high in the mix. Now wait, I heard that!
Pipe down you! That is not a foregone conclusion as you are trying
to be stating that any accordion is too much. Shut your pop-rock
hole elst I shut it for you, happy shoes. Now as I was saying,
the banjo is a bit jarring at times. Now don't lets start, unclench
your brain and unwrap this disc.
H.M.S Mondegreen is packed tight with gypsy sorrow, thoughtful
cabaret humor, seaside drunkeness and Kennedy Greenrod's
wearily smooth British baritone. The tales of warning and wanting
are vivid and comforting with a sense that the conveyor has little
say in what is presented, but thank God that he does. Greenrod's
songwriting is on the level of the aforementioned Cave, while
his characters haven't lost touch with the common man. "The
Ballad Of A+M" is spit out bitterly and features the only
violin/accordion London Calling dub break ever recorded.
The weakest track, the dancy "OK Fine" is passable if
you think of an acoustic Shriekback. Or Cohen's Jazz
Police. Yeah, I could do without it too, but the trumpets
are sweet.
Like an ill-conceived Rosencrantz (or was it Guildenstern?) experiment,
"Yes But How Much" unsuccessfully attempts to find a
scientific measurement for love. "We poured our love into
wee plastic baggies/sealed them with twist ties/we dropped them
into the bath/and I thought of Archimedes naked and histerical/and
I too felt like running out screaming/but his wife was embarrassed/how
can you blame her? You know what the neighbors are like."
I rarely use the word, so here goes. Genius.
I demand a recount on my top ten list: the votes from Chicago
weren't all in yet. If The Thin Man ever runs into fellow Chicagoan
Andrew Bird, God help us all.
-Ewan Wadharmi
Track Listing:
1. Until The Good Lord Shows His Face
2. The Ballad of A&M
3. Lazarose
4. For Us
5.OK Fine
6.Going, Going, Gone
7.Warm Hands
8.No Fun
9.Yes, But How Much?
10.Take Me Home
11.Sometime Soon
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