Customer Reviews

Roots & Crowns

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Full disclosure: I am a very big fan of this band's music. That said, this is their most accessible and easiest to love album to date. I struggle to say it's their best, only because Quicksand/Cradlesnakes is so stellar. One reviewer below insists it's easy to like, but hard to love. Oddly enough, I have the opposite opinion.

For any fan of ambient sounds, interesting arrangements, and evocative, textured instruments, I highly recommend this band's work. Throw Roots & Crowns on in the background a few times, and soon enough you'll be reaching for the case (or maximizing your iTunes window) to see which song it is that you're so drawn to. Before long, you will love this album. I have trouble finding the words to explain exactly why this music seeps so deeply into my brain.

If you are on the fence, listen to "The Orchids", "3 Legged Animals" and "Sunday Noises". If you like them, you will love this album. The songs vary from quiet, delicate, hypnotic tunes like "Our Kitten Sees Ghosts" to lilting, horn infused mid-tempo numbers like "Spider's House". If this is your first exposure to Califone, and you are typically drawn to more immediately accesible alt-folk like Wilco, don't throw this album on and expect it to wow you with clever lyrics and catchy choruses. Let it seep in gradually. After a few turns, you won't want to stop listening. It is infectious.

This could be my favorite album of the year. It is a mature, unique album that contains brilliant songs structured in subtle, complex ways, with melodies weaving between simple acoustic strumming and electronic interference. This is an album best enjoyed in a quiet room alone, with headphones to fully appreciate. I haven't heard any of their other albums, so I cannot compare it to their past work. In fact, I cannot say exactly who I would compare them to. Maybe Iron and Wine meets Tom Waits. But who cares, it is a great album and will no doubt be a fine addition to your collection. Give it a couple of spins when you are really listening, and I think you will agree.

they'd sound like this, narratives blown like an old transmission, parts clinking along the pavement, underwires pinging and cupping lasciviously, all sweet blues and sweeter decay. If you're familiar, Calfone improves on their already remarkable range, lacing horns into the loops, pulling a gem out of Psychic TV's catalog with "The Orchids." If you're not familiar, it helps if you like the slow surprise of a junk drawer opening, scraps of paper scrawled in pencil, that bolt you need, that tiny photo of someone you used to know. The lyrics are poems, the songs sublime.

This is an excellent cd. I haven't stopped playing it since I got it. When a new Califone cd comes out, it's like Christmas. Roots and Crowns is another stop on the long journey this band has been on. I never want it to end. I have over a thousand cds and this band has always been my favorite. They are the soundtrack to my life. I never want it to end. I live in Taiwan and I just wish I could win the lottery so I could see these guys live.

This is one of those albums, which seem to defy classification and that in itself makes it something which should be in every music fan's collection. Taking ideas and genres from all corners of the music spectrum to make something, which is genuinely fascinating and satisfying to listen to. Beautifully crafted, down right quirky, it flutters from gentle folksie ambience to hypnotic grind in the blink of an eye. And it does it all effortlessly and without self-indulgence. Intelligent without being overbearing and pretentious, it's full of surprises and joy, even after the umpteenth listen.

At the same time they seem to take a child like delight in the noises they make, and that brings with it a freshness and clarity not often heard; intense, laid-back, ramshackle yet perfectly constructed, scratchy, funky, bluesy, whimsical, gossamer threaded events that scamper delightfully from gentle, almost casual tunes to whirling dervish steel cored grunt and back again, without even breaking into a sweat. Brilliant.

i get tired of critics hailing every new release from certain bands as "their best yet." but i'm not a critic, just a silly mediocre person, so i can be excused. This is califone's best recording yet. Weird & wonderful. Experimental, yet accessible. It all sounds great. And it sounds like they really know what they are doing. I hope they keep it up for years to come. I want more of this.

Throaty vocals over bluesy guitar over mountain folk guitar and jug drums... all played in a slow factory with a TV on somewhere.

My decision to buy this album was entirely based on Pitchfork Media's review and sampling the songs here on Amazon. While Roots and Crowns is cohesive, innovative album, I wouldn't give it the 8.7 PM chose. Unity is not always catchy. If you're looking for music that you can throw on for background rather than shaping your mood, this is a perfect album. But you're not going to fall in love with it.

this a very good collection of songs that have elements from every type of califone album. While I dont think it is their best ever..its a lot better then HKB. This album is an excellent sampler to califone. I like all their styles so I am happy with it, hasn't left my car cd player since i got it. The 3rd listen is when the beauty really emerges. go get it! viva la 'fone!

Califone is amazing..."Heron King Blues" blew me away and "Roots & Crowns" vaporized what was left of me. It is like traveling through all genres of American music in one listen. It's dirty, it's raw, it's emotional, it's sedated...basically it's real...completely real. If you like the blues - buy it. If you like country - buy it. If you like avant garde - buy it. If you truly like music - BUY IT. The list of intruments played is so long and diverse you would think that it couldn't sound like anything but noise...well, it does. However, controlled noise would be a better label. And through this controlled noise, melodies rise up and gradually take form that bring you back to music that sounds so familiar, but like nothing you've ever heard before.

This is definitely the most "radio friendly" album to date. I've been a fan since they were called "Red Red Meat" in the early 90's--about when "Bunny Gets Paid" was just released. Definitely a great album to buy if you are curious about their sound.