Chore of Enchantment

Giant Sand | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 7, 2000)
• Original Release Date: March 7, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Thrill Jockey
• ASIN: B00003XAA7
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #257,488 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Overture

2. (Well) Dusted (For the Millennium)

3. Punishing Sun

4. X-Tra Wide

5. 1972

6. Temptation of Egg

7. Raw

8. Wolfy

9. Shiver

10. Dirty from the Rain

11. Astonished (In Memphis)

12. No Reply

13. Satellite

14. Bottom Line Man

15. Way to End the Day

16. Shrine

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 2000

Howie Gelb tinkers with Giant Sand like a mechanic restoring a classic jalopy in the back barn. With an eclectic mixed bag of spare parts (Neil Young, Percy Sledge, and Lou Reed with a bit of John Cale thrown in) he presides over the revolving-door collective Giant Sand with a lot of elbow grease, much inspired love, and a kind of whacked genius. Though his talent has always been apparent, until Chore of Enchantment, he's never hit on all cylinders. But he's racing now. Chore is replete with top-notch, desert-fried, soul-infused tunes. --Tod Nelson

Product Description

Realised through tragic circumstances, the passing of Rainer Ptacek and the birth of Calexico, it all came together at the end for Giant Sand. Arguably Giant Sands' finest album, the fruits of an astounding story and the mesmerizing high point of the 25th anniversary reissue series. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Lord, a masterpiece?, May 23, 2000

By 

"unionlarry" (Farmington, CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chore of Enchantment (Audio CD)

"Being way too tall for any self regulation/I'd invite the devil in and his entire nation/What in tarnation?"

So asks frontman Howe Gelb in "Raw," one of the seemingly countless American Beauties he's created in the service of examing yourself, lacerating yourself and laughing at yourself whilst whistling by the old graveyard. (Helpful hint: the devil and his nation are the guests that never leave.)

By turns funky, psychedelic and folksy, "Chore of Enchantment" touches so many emotional rails over the course of its languorous sojourn that you can't quite tell what's jolting you.

Its truths are harsh, humorous, ironic and frighteningly on target, from gum drop stains revealing an absent heart on "Astonished" to a drunken binge that reconnects lost nights with fearful days on "Way to end the day." When Gelb whisper-croaks, "Reinventing the unending day/in high isolation," you feel his protagonist's buzz of happy futility.

Sure, think Tom Waits. Think Yo La Tengo. Think Lou Reed. Hell, think Leonard Cohen or Neil Young (circa "On the Beach.")if you want.

Think all of them, then throw it all away, because Giant Sand practically reinvents pop minimalism. Just let the beauty, sadness and mystery of "Chore" envelop you. (I'm not much for serendipity, but how else do you attribute the nearly coincidental arrival of "Chore of Enchantment" with the Mekon's equally forlorn but illuminating "Journey to the End of Night"?)

Gelb and his crew have endowed us with something special and something stunning -- spiritual desolation has rarely sounded so lush and so damn true to the heart.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sand is better than rock, February 6, 2001

By 

bruce (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chore of Enchantment (Audio CD)

I'd read the accolades for this album after coming to Giant Sand via Calexico, and had a bit of trouble actually obtaining this album. On first playing I was disappointed (often the case with good albums), but after a couple more attempts I was seduced by its abundant and diverse charms. This is perhaps one of the best "country rock/alt. country" albums ever recorded. (Giant Sand's music defies clumsy categorizations). Certainly Neil Young is evoked by songs like 'Punishing Sun' or 'Shiver'- and "Bottom Line Man" could even be a mellow, cabaret-style Lou Reed. There's a breathy Leonard Cohenesque quality in "Dusted for the Millenium" and a touch of the sly Zappa croak in "Extra Wide"- but these associations merely enhance the appreciation of great songs that stand proudly and starkly on their own merit. Howe Gelb is no shallow, derivative musician creating a pseudo identity by modelling himself on others - he is one of those rare and inspired eccentrics who posess both a skewed outlook and a warm, open heart. With superlative, restrained musicianship and a wonderful economical spaciousness about the production, this is an album to keep coming back to again and again.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad, slow and beautiful, April 14, 2000

By 

Rob Damm - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chore of Enchantment (Audio CD)

What is with all of these indie-legend bands making elegiac pop masterpieces this year? Must be the millenium... First Yo La Tengo with the masterful "and then nothing...", the Mekons with their stunning "Journey to the end of night"... and now, best of all Giant Sand's "Chore on enchantment"...

Can't really say enough for this record. I'm sure the handful of people who get to hear it will share my sentiments. It's a stone-cold masterwork. One of the best records in the last 20 years... blah, blah, blah... but alas, it's preaching to the choir. I couldn't even find this record in any local shop. I had to order it. How is anyone going to sell records if the stores don't even bother to carry them? Every store, the same line "yeah, that really doesn't sell so we don't carry it." How can you tell if it sells or not if you don't have it in the first place?

Sorry for that rant, but's it's just a crime that beautiful complex and challenging music like this is totally marginalized while throwaway junk-pop and rap/metal products are endlessly celebrated.