I Am Not Hamlet

A little ball of cottony lightning tumbled in my stomach as I opened the package today. Hombre Lobo , the new Eels album was delivered to my mailbox this afternoon. I promptly tore off the plastic wrap and inserted the CD into my player. The little ball of cottony lightning soon fizzled out. Most of the "12 songs of desire" are only moderately interesting. A 4/4 tempo, minimal sonic colors, and bland lyrics unfortunately dominate on this. Only "Fresh Blood", "All the Beautiful Things", and "Beginner's Luck", approach E's usual compositional talent. It's not that the album sucks, but E has set the bar much higher than this--hence the disappointment. Artists tend to fluctuate in their output, this just happens to be a lower point in the Eels arc. You could find better starting places in their discography if you haven't listened to Eels before. If you're already a fan, you may find more to like than I did, but ...

Perhaps you've heard of 16 Horsepower--and if you haven't you're missing the best hillbilly goth ever recorded. Well, they split and David Eugene Edwards, the frontman, created his own side project a few years back named Woven Hand . This is less hillbilly-ish, more. . . eclectic--electric folk with a bit of atmospherics, and always in the background a pinch of Eastern European influences. Edwards, much like Bill Mallonee, has a way of writing about the spiritual without sounding like. . . Yes(!?) or the ghetto shite of CCM. More than Mallonee, Edwards takes direct phrasing or metaphors from Biblical texts and makes them his own. For instance, his recast metaphor for the sin nature (or St. Paul's "Old Man") is the "Wooden Eye." The opening cut on the new album,"The Beautiful Axe," describes sanctification in a way I don't think I've ever heard before-- "Joy has come/It's risen with the sun/He, the highest on the horizo...

I haven't written any album reviews on here, so why start now? Well, honestly, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible is just too good not to spread the word about. David Dark has a more extensive review in Books and Culture , but this will have to suffice. Starting with a carnivalesque organ the album churns out dark and yet contrarily hopeful songs. Two in particular to focus on are "The Well and the Lighthouse" and "AntiChrist Television Blues." The first concerns a story of sin and redemption with the end chorus slowly chanting "Resurrected living in a lighthouse, if you leave them ships are gonna wreck. Resurrected, living in a lighthouse, the lions and the lambs ain't sleeping yet." Oblique yet illuminating for those with ears to hear. The song immediately following is the antithesis. Some schmuck wants to use his daughter (who sings beautifully) vicariously to testify about the power of God. As the song progresses he turns on his daughter, continually...