Customer Reviews

Last Days of Wonder

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A month ago I had heard of the Handsome Family but never heard them. Now that I have please forgive the following hyperbole, it is the ardour felt for a new love.

Their new album Last Days of Wonder does just what it says on the tin. It asks in a cycle of songs varying from ones that could have been sung in Elizabeth the First's court (Hunter Green) to scary, but funny tunes that will be sung and strummed, no doubt, for years to come around the campfire (After We Shot the Grizzly) to waltzes (Telsa's Hotel Room). But taken as a whole they are asking is science about to remove all sense of wonder from our world, and are we happy about that? This is a profound question but it is asked in a round about way that approaches through the cumulative effect of learning these wonderful songs and not dry and dusty like Philosophy 101. They are asking you to clap your hands if you believe in fairies or magic or have ever felt awe; otherwise all that will be left is the whirl of machines and digital analysis.

And with the incredible song writing team of Brett and Rennie Sparks producing such tunes you are going to be clapping your hands a lot - lovely stories to make you laugh and shiver, they possess so much `back story' that you can pack your bags and spend your vacation in there.

But back to my first question - are they perfect? Well, no. They have tended their very unique garden well but sometimes listening to these exquisite melodies I wish that a superstar producer might have been at the helm, a Daniel Lanois or Rick Rubin (but oh no not Eno) to really get them to take wing fully and reach the stratosphere, but it is hard to believe that such genius songwriters haven't had the opportunity to take that path but have commendably chosen not to. Also, although it says nowhere on their job description that they are here to rock you, it would be nice for a little more punch being applied occasionally. But even here they supply a few toe tapping numbers Bob Wills the King of Texas Swing wouldn't have minded attaching his name to such as `Bowling Alley Bar' and `All the Time in Airport', which with a slight upping of the amperage could easily fit into the repertory of Altcountry Rebel Steve Earle.

So, you are lucky - this near perfect fruit is hanging right within your grasp - pluck it and let it into your life. You won't regret it, and while you are at it, if you are new to this marvel, take a leap of faith and get one or two of their back catalogue while you're at it. I would recommend the equally brilliant predecessor Singing Bones. If my search through the record shops of this market town in England's West country is indicative of the bleak distribution opportunities of minor labels major talent, Amazon is going to be the smartest way to go, and I promise after hearing this great CD you are going to want to hear more of the Handsome Family.

This album marks a change in the Handsome Family canon. Continuing with the slower-paced tradition of their last album, "Singing Bones," this album finds Brett and Rennie Sparks delving into a varitey of topics that somewhat differ from their usual tales of darker fare. Rennie's economical but effective writing shines as bright as ever in the lyrical department, while Brett's songwriting continues to mature and blossom. While the first two tracks start out slowly, one, of the ensuing tracks has an almost Tom Waits feel, while another track features distorted guitar and a moog synth. In another band's hands, these differences could seem jarring, but the Handsome Family does so with ease, making the production changes feel natural and evenly placed. This is another stellar album in a long line of fine work from this under-appreciated group.

Indeed, they are nearly perfect. The Family Sparks seem to have found a winning formula for consistently creating very moving, curious, and eerie records. At first listen, the songs are short and simplistic, both lyrically and musically. Careful inspection though, will reveal a musical lotus unfolding from the mud, abandoned shopping carts, chain-link fences, thousand year old trees, and any other piece of imagery conceived not too far from the back-roads. City vs. country is a prevalent theme throughout the album, set to the minutia of the Sparks' observations at any particular second. Whether at strip-malls, busy airports, lonesome diners, or starving in the back-country, this is a snapshot of the landscapes we are passing through on our great journey, ranging from our grand cosmic origins, to the places we need only to keep the momentum going, like the mini-marts and airports. Ultimately, that is the overarching idea here: the aim our great journey is not the goal, but the act itself. The Handsome Family superbly captures this wonder with wide eyes and thoughtful insight.

Typically, the songs tend toward a slow pacing to fully embellish Brett Sparks' deep and welcoming voice. Obviously, this is a band that takes its time and care when making its albums, and rightfully so. That said, I also agree wholeheartedly that a little extra kick, that is, a heavier rock and roll presence, might just be what's needed to increase their listenership. It appears sporadically in the record, especially in the song `All the Time in Airports', and changes the pace well. It's really gravy, though, because The Handsome Family just does everything so well on "Last Days of Wonder". In addition to the other hyped tracks named elsewhere, the standout tracks for me are `Flapping Your Broken Wings', `All the Times in Airports', `Our Blue Sky', and "Somewhere Else to Be'. They're hauntingly good from a really unique band.

I often think of Rennie Sparks as a roots-music Lorelai Gilmore: her mind racing from one connection to the next while the rest of us watch her points of reference fly by. She's the type of writer I aspire to be: wonderfully funny without being cloying, fanciful while grounded, and morbid in all the best ways. She's one of our most important lyricists and good fortune allowed her to be paired with Brett, who knows how to pair her words with music that sounds timeless, and who sings with the type of grave baritone that makes it all sound so important, and who can really play.

I love all their albums, but this, their most recent as of this writing, is my favorite: "Bowling Alley Bar," "After We Shot the Grizzly," "Tesla's Hotel Room," "All the Time in Airports" and especially "Flapping Your Broken Wings" being among the best of all the Sparks/Sparks songs.

I wonder how they do it,I am just glad they keep doing it.That dynamic duo have given us yet another gift,I don't know how they keep doing it, but they keep expressing the inexpressible, that world that lies just out of our reach, but which we glimpse in moments of illumination.The Handsome Family write about our world, they use our words, they use instruments,and the same musical notes that are over the radio all day, but they make it all shine, to paraphrase T.H.White, they are some of what we all are, just drops in the great sunlight sea, but some of those drops sparkle.

The Handsome Family is very interesting group. They are a husband and wife team who sing murder ballads. I have never seen them play. But I did an interview with them a few years ago. They seemed like a very bitter crowd. If you take a little punk-punk, and throw in a fascination with Nick Cave, and a conversion to Americana, you get to the Handsome Family. When I was talking to them on the phone I felt that I was talking to myself ten years ago. I was really pissed off. I was in training to become a serial killer. I guess that I moved to New York City and joined the rat race. A bunch of good and bad things have happened, and I am all the better for it. If I were still the old me, and time did stop, I would be probably making music like this. But Handsome Family has moved on with this album. There are the same Americana obsessions. Now they have songs about Nicola Tesla. "These Golden Jewels" is like a Tom Waits song. Most of the album is like some southern novel. I was listening to this Ralph Stanley CD recently. Handsome Family is like that except with the references to God. This is a whole album without any murder ballads or even a body count. The Handsome Family has grown up.

Maybe it's just me, but am I missing something here? After I had read the reviews of this album, already being a big Handsome Family fan, I had expected Last Days to deliver in the HF tradition. It doesn't.

Gone is the eerie feel, the other worldiness of HF's other albums. Instead, this is an insipid lineup of what I would characterize as 'ordinary country' tunes. It isn't that the lyrics miss their mark. But they lack their usual impact because the melodies (and the production) don't support the spirit of the song's story. "Poor Lenore", "White Dog", or "Fallen Peaches" don't pull the listener in only because of well-crafted, Poe-esque lyrics. It's also Brett's belief in what he's singing, no matter how softly, that helps take us out to the desert (or frozen field). This album feels passionless to me, as if Brett himself doesn't really believe in them. The songs just wind up being middle of the road, I've-heard-this-before country tunes one could toast marshmallows to, or sort laundry. Handsome Family could tour alongside Willie Nelson with this album.

If you like your soup room temperature, if you've never stepped up to a hole in the ground and wondered what was at the bottom, if you prefer travelling the well-lit highways instead of the backroads, you'll probably like this album. If you are a Handsome Family fan looking for more dead passenger pigeons, pass this one over and order yourself one of the other Handsome Family releases. That's exactly what I'm going to do as soon as I've completed this review.