Customer Reviews

For Carnation

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Finally! After releasing only a 3 song single in '95 and an EP in '96, The For Carnation put out a full length album (43 minutes anyway). I have no idea why it took four years to get it out but it was worth the wait. This album is a lot more groove or trance oriented than their previous stuff. It's not quite as minimal although the songs are still very mellow and beautiful. The music washes over you in pulsating waves while the vocals are softly sung in a very creepy manner. The whole album has a very dark mood, much like Brian's previous work. None of the songs stick out as being better than any other, as they're all pretty close to perfect. Personnel wise, only Brian and Michael McMahan still remain from any previous lineup, but Brian's basically the backbone of the band anyway. There are a lot of "additional performers" on the album including Rachel Haden (from That Dog), Kim Deal, Britt Walford (from Slint), and John McEntire (Tortoise, Sea and Cake, etc.). Basically, this album is flawless. If you don't buy this, you are insane.

It drags. It drives. It broods. It bleeds. In a world where technology makes it so easy to flood the ears, The For Carnation has mastered a subdued sound that lulls and charms and then sends shivers down your spine with a bit of eerie guitar or unnerving electronica. And the melodies follow you for days, insinuating themselves into your consciousness at every quiet moment. Sloooow and smooooth and a nice album to listen to when the lights are out and the day is done. A soundtrack for warm purple dreams.

now i can honestly say this is one of my five favorite albums to be released this year, and definitely my favorite that could be considered "post-rock". this album moves extremely slow, not unlike scottish post-rockers mogwai, but without the noisier, harsher elements. most of the songs on here consist of a repeated bassline, slow drums that accompany the bassline, a few strange noises in the background, and unique vocals that range between talking and subtle singing. there are seldom changes in the music, but when there are, it sounds beautiful.

i was not able to get into this album right away. the music is incredibly simplistic, extremely slow, and very repitive...but after a few listens i found that the for carnation can find beauty in this. for best results, listen to this late at night with no lights on, it's incredibly soothing.

this is extremely original too; the only comparisons i could really make are mogwai and tortoise, but tortoise has much more going on usually, and mogwai implement more guitar into their mix. oh yeah, and if you didn't know already, this is mcmahon from slint's group, so i guess if you heard these guys before slint, check out their spiderland album as well.

Picking up where "Salo" left off on their last release, this album strikes me, after my third listen, as (almost) a single song in 6 parts or movements. They're all long, they're all as dark and deep and booming and hollow and spaced as the inside of the enemy spacecraft in the first "Alien" movie, with an overwhelming surface similarity reminiscent in character (if not in tone) of the first Neu! album.

That said, the inside of Brian McMahan's head must look quite a bit like the H.R. Giger interiors of that grounded alien ship, too. Or like the scapes of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath." Everything dark, charred, every movement carefully, carefully considered, betrayal and death lurking on the fringes of your vision like a surety of wolves at dusk. "Tales" is the most arresting, opening with Kim Deal's brief take on "When You Wish Upon a Star," breathed like a futile prayer before opening the cellar door and descending on rickety old steps into the dank chill maliciousness of the song. "A Tribute To" sounds the most like The For Carnation's earlier work: quiet, lyrically stretched out, held together and aloft by a meager but insistent skeleton of bass strings. The others chug along in the fashion one associates with the band -- i.e. a for carnation is a for carnation is a for carnation -- black and wet and trippy, the wide cold distances between stars, the strange haunting lyrics causing random, rusty neurons to fire in the memory, and begging the same question with each repetition: just what the hell is Brian McMahan singing about? I don't know, but I'll have another anyway. Best for late at night, alone, pensive; goes exceedingly well with Scotch, ganj, or both.

Dark. Intense. Introspective. Brooding. Indispensible. This is definitely a cd for the new millenium. After a long, difficult wait, The For Carnation has released another truly incredible cd. These songs are highly-polished, detailed works. Utilizing slow tempos, a quiet and minimalist sound, and very subtly mixed echoes and electronics, this album creates pure atmosphere. Listening to this cd is like looking at the world through dark sunglasses- everything is a little ethereal, distant. The lyrics are often sung low, whispered, or half-spoken - giving the songs an intensity and closeness that adds even more to the dark atmosphere.

"A Tribute To" is moving, insistent, and almost threatening at times. "Being Held" is a throbbing, pulsating mass of sound with powerful percussion, without being noisy or employing distortion. "Moonbeams" starts simply but subtly builds to a cinematic climax of electronics and percussion over an epic ten-minutes.

This album is an excellent addition to any collection. Nearly everyone who listens to it gets drawn in. The dark, black cover art showing those few, stately windows allowing just a small amount of light inside perfectly illustrates the atmosphere and feel of this album.

One of the best of 2000. (Along with Aloha's "That's Your Fire" and Storm & Stress's "Under Thunder and Fluorescent Lights".)

This is one of the best releases I've heard from ANY band in the last couple of years. Absolute top-notch quality in the writing, playing and production. Gorgeous string arrangements, a truly soulful rhythym section (and check out the drumming on Being Held!), bittersweet melodies and out of this world sounds add up to one great album. Turn it up loud so you can hear what's really going on underneath everything.

In my opinion, the best album of 2000. Honestly, I think this is the album Brian McMahan has been trying to make ever since Spiderland. Each song is incredibly subtle and crafted with sheer brilliance. While it's only six songs, the quality therein makes up for it. Reminds me of being a kid, listening to stories around a forest campfire. It's not the points, baby, it's the spirits they conjure. Bravo, bruthas.

Simply put, The For Carnation are the gothic version of tortoise. Just like the latter they make music which, lacking a better categorization, could be labelled as "post-rock" but their music has got a more haunting feel. It sounds smoky and deeply steeped in paranoia and claustrophobia. The lyrics aren't sung, they're rather hushed, whispered, contributing to the overall gloomy feel. Most post-rock acts are affected by an annoying form of mannerism which makes them hip but results in uninspiring works which lack "fire" if you know what I mean. TFC on the contrary manage not to fall in that cliché. Brrr, gives me the creeps, still I feel addicted!

Although the droning sound created on these songs contains some elements of McMahan's previous projects (namely Slint, Palace and the previous For Carnation EP's) and is comparable - to a certain extent - to Gastr del Sol or Smog, in it's subtle arrangements and mounting repetition the For Carnation achieves an intense beauty on this record without relying on sounds of the past. Fans of Slint will lend an excited ear to the guest drumming by Britt Walford on the album's bell-riddled centerpiece. Fans of the Breeders will love Kim Deal's guest vocals on "Tales". And fans of beautiful records in general will enjoy all of the other songs for simply being great.

The For Carnation was formed in Chicago by Brian McMahan in 1995, four years after the dissolution of his group Slint, which had evolved from the vigorously energetic Louisville punk band Squirrel Bait. The comparative brevity of Slint's output (two short LPs and a posthumous EP) has only sharpened the band's mystique; the group proved to be so influential after its demise that one might say it ruined innovation in rock for half a decade.

?Slint's sound, particularly on its second release, Spiderland, combined McMahan's spoken-sung lyrical vignettes with slow, crystalline guitar arpeggiations that alternated with bursts of loud, angular, heavily distorted playing. McMahan's song structures in the For Carnation rely on a similarly ominous and deliberate style but substitute a quiet insistence for the harder-edged peaks of Slint. Sometimes while listening, it's tempting to yell "Step on a pedal and rock, you guys!" and some audience members at the band's initial series of live shows came close to that. While the For Carnation's mid-'90s work sometimes erred on the side of the tentative, this slightly overdue follow-up sounds confident and sustains a thoroughly convincing mood over its 43 minutes. The bass and drums team of Todd Cook and Steve Goodfriend provides a limber underpinning, while members of L.A.'s Polar Goldie Cats and Brian's brother Michael complete the sound with guitars, keyboards and judicious use of electronic embellishment.

McMahan's low-pitched voice stays within a limited melodic range and is sometimes reminiscent of Leonard Cohen's. His lyrics remain characteristically oblique, but the way their meaning emerges in detached phrases as his voice interweaves with the flow of the arrangements is what gives the music its mysterious quality.