In the Air

Handsome Family | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 15, 2000)
• Original Release Date: February 18, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Carrot Top Records
• ASIN: B00004RDHK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,676 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #57 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > Alternative Folk
  • #93 in Music > Indie Music > Folk > Contemporary Folk

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Chicago's Handsome Family draws its inspiration from traditional murder ballads, but unlike the Carter Family, whose name they pun, Brett and Rennie Sparks do it out of a fascination with the macabre rather than a familiarity with it. In the Air, the couple's fourth album, chronicles a world full of death, snakes, dark highways, and sad milkmen. To the Sparkses (Rennie writes the lyrics; Brett sings them), this world isn't bleak or bizarre, it's beautiful--and vivid. Here a man isn't simply skinny, he's "thin as the bow of his black violin." And here, when William got killed, the murderer lingered and "watched as his blood ran through dead grass / Watched as the black ants crawled through his hands." And somehow, through Brett's sonorous baritone, Rennie's breathy melodica, and guest Andrew Bird's violin, even such violence seems ultimately peaceful. --Anders Smith-Lindall

Product Description

If their last album, Through the Trees, came to us from the darkness at the bottom of a well (or a liquor bottle), In the Air is the sound of the Handsome Family after they made it out of the depths and up onto the grass -- and are now adjusting to a less desperate life. Not to say that it's sunny. Lyricist Rennie Sparks still presents us with dark and bloody tragedies, as well as whimsical fairytales about lonely, but hopeful figures. The difference between In the Air and the Handsome Family's last album seems to be the presence of a calm (as opposed to disturbed restraint) and a certain warmth pervading this album. Brett Sparks' vocal delivery comes across as more relaxed and natural and in lieu of the occasional, creepy vocal effects used on the last album. The colorful, sad, and disturbed scenes are often delivered with a country flavor and a folk instrumentation, and include songs that are the rightful offspring of Appalachian murder ballads, such as "My Beautiful Bride" and "Up Falling Rock Hill," and southern hymns ("Never Grow Old"). The Handsome Family's songs are imbued with a tender romanticism and love of the fantastic -- and of a world that, for all it's real twists and sadness, still holds moments of childlike wonder and magical possibilities. In the Air was recorded, as were their three previous albums, in the Handsome Family living room, this time with live percussion (provided by Brett) instead of a drum machine. Also heard are guest musicians Darrell Sparks, who sings backup and plays guitar on two songs, and violinist Andrew Bird (formerly of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, leader of his own roots music-based band) who contributes to "Poor, Poor Lenore," "Up Falling Rock Hill," and "When That Helicopter Comes," a hellfire and brimstone, foot-stomping number with a sparse, bluegrass delivery: "It's gonna rain champagne/and the hills are gonna dance... The sky will swim in lightning fire and the trees will shake and scream." ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beware Ye All Who Enter In, April 19, 2000

By 

R.J.Parnell (Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Air (Audio CD)

'Through The Trees' should have warned us. Branches rustled without a breath of wind: song-birds fell silent and strange black clouds darkened the sun: I felt a chill run through my room but there was nowhere to run that did not suddenly appear touched with melancholy. Still, this could all have been an aberation. Maybe just a fluke coming together of two currents that for the brief duration of 13 unspeakeably beautiful, haunting songs, created something quite unique and terrible. However, 'In the Air'is like waking from the dream to find you are still dreaming. Heavens, the back cover of the CD case should have been sufficient warning to us alone! People, think carefully before buying these new songs. How much do you value your view on the world? How much beauty can you take. I met Rennie Sparks a few weeks ago after their gig in Edinburgh and asked her what happens to Poor Lenore (track 7) after the song. Lenore has been carried to the top of a dead tree (where the heartbroken go) by crows. This really mattered to me. At first Rennie denied knowing the end of the story. Then, picking up the desperate look in my eyes, took hold of my hand and said, 'Well, yes, maybe in the end she does get down from that tree'. This, and a set that had the audience shuddering and laughing in equal measure, left me so blissful that I floated from the theatre. For a few hours, I was fooled. A few hours remembering the tender way she cradled her autoharp, before the stark outline of a leafless tree against the night sky shook me back to the reality of the Handsomes lyrical word. Lenore doesn't make it down from that tree. She's there still; at least her ghost is, waiting to sing its sad lament to any traveller accidentally wandering down that dark, damp path. Her hair whispers in the wind as the snow begins to fall and her mouth, endlessly, fills with blood. The Handsome Family stand utterly alone in the world. Leave behind everything you thought you knew and lie down in the dark rolling sea. When you get to the bottom, they will kiss you to sleep. Thank you Rennie and Brett.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DropDead Gorgeous, February 26, 2000

By 

Andy Whorehall "aW" (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Air (Audio CD)

No words describe how beautiful this album plays. Hopeful, sombre, bright, dark, frigid and beautiful, horrifying, vicious, vibrant, velour covered with black tar and sun stained on, whatever. Brett and Rennie Sparks have created the first true lyrical and musical masterpiece of the new century, decade, god, the millenium. Picking up where "Through The Trees" left off, Brett's musical pallete takes on a slightly brighter mood this time around to add mask to Rennie's viciously vivid lyrics. What allow's for postive melancholic balance is Rennie's ability to tell oddly beautiful stories within the words of the song. "The Sad Milkman" may be the first great countrypopfolk song written this side of the new millenium. An alternative earlier version of this Sparks original also appears on Sally Timms recent 1999 Bloodshot gem, "Cowboy Sally's Twilight Laments...For Lost Buckaroos." For those seeking something very rewarding in the year 2000, start here. "In the Air" is drop dead gorgeous pop with a touch of everything rooted in traditional country and folk. Mmmm.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These guys are good!, March 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: In the Air (Audio CD)

Songs to sit on a screened-in porch with your gal and drink spiked lemonade by. This album has the feel of an endless summer evening full of sweat, mosquitos, and of course, blood. Timelessly haunting, lyrical and lovely. Spooky romance at its best.