Customer Reviews

Tanglewood Numbers

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Mr. Berman is back!!! And Mr. Malkmus is with him again!!! American Water is probably one of my favorite albums of all time, so I was eager for this latest from the Jews. No dissapointment here. "Punks in the Beerlight" is a great dirty rocker, but the second track ("Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed")is where it becomes obvious that the magic is back. If track four - "Animal Shapes" doesnt get you reaching to turn up the volume you are probably dead. There are great, lazy weird strummers - like all Silver Jew records - as well. The final track, about Dave Bermans attempted suicide, is amazing and manages to be uplifting. All in all, one of the best of 2005 so far. With My Morning Jacket going all "Wilco-ey" - Silver Jews may the last refuge for good southern tinged country rock.

It's difficult to believe that at one time, David Berman was known as little more than Stephen Malkmus' fluky college roommate. Now an accomplished writer with a collection of poetry (Actual Air) headed quickly towards cult status, and five acclaimed albums on the highly credible Drag City imprint, Berman seems to finally be getting his dues as an artist. In the time since his career-best album, Bright Flight, Berman settled down into life in Nashville, domesticated himself alongside his new wife Cassie, presumably drank 20,000 (more) beers, became addicted to some hardcore substances, and alas, attempted to take his life. A true poet indeed. Luckily, Berman lived to write another album, the results being the recently released Tanglewood Numbers.
Once recovered, Berman began spending his days at home, collecting modest royalty checks-living off of less than $25,000 per year, a ridiculously low amount, considering his 1998 album, American Water, was regarded by many critics to be the year's best release. In time, Berman got the writing bug like he never had before, eventually calling on his all-star cast of friends and past band members to help him record what was to become his fifth full-length album in the spring of 2005. Along for the ride on one of the years most anticipated indie releases was Bob Nastanovich (Pavement), Will Oldham (Bonnie `Prince' Billy/Palace), his wife Cassie (Linda to his Richard Thompson), Steve West (Pavement), Bobby Bare, Jr., Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle), Mike Fellows, and on again-off again Joo, Stephen Malkmus.
As far as album formats go, aside from the absence of his customary instrumental composition, Berman's auteuristic habits continue to be a key element on Tanglewood. Yes, as has been the case with each of his works to date, Berman's vocal quality has once again changed. Album one saw a new artist that really wanted to sing showing youthful conviction, then there was the clever whip of a bearded Berman who seemed to secretly love country music on album number two. Album three saw Berman and Malkmus often sharing vocal duties to indie-friendly results while 2001's Bright Flight saw D.C. transformed into a raspy country singer with all the answers. Truth be told, if you were to listen to TN alongside any other Jews album, you might forget it's the same band. Sounding old and beaten, campy and funny, Berman finally seems to be just singing; not over-thinking or calculating, Tanglewood might be the first true account of what David Berman really sounds like.
Musically, TN takes a slight step away from the Americana sound of recent releases with oftentimes poppy art-rock compositions. The songs are strange yet immediate as Berman takes the role of a modern day Shel Silverstein. Some songs, such as "Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed" and "Animal Shapes" seem to be borderline kids songs in the vein of the Silverstein-penned "A Boy Named Sue." A good portion of the remaining tracks are, more or less, children's songs for adults; check the titles alone, "How Can I Love You if You Wont Lie Down," "I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You," and "Sleeping is the Only Love." Berman's lyrical quality, while clearly strange, is still very multifaceted and rewarding, most significantly the open account of his suicide attempt on "There is a Place." Also of note is the return of Berman's great storytelling ability on the seven minute, word heavy-epic, "The Farmer's Motel," which is co-written by Stephen Malkmus.
Since the release of his second album, The Natural Bridge in 1996, Berman has been the songwriter to watch, delivering the indie classic American Water, as well as the Americana gem, Bright Flight. While the writing on TN can't stand up to such past masterworks as "I Remember" and "Random Rules," Berman has no doubt released another poignant collection that's sure to keep all his songwriter chums in check.
Everyone has a different Jews album of choice, and while Tanglewood Numbers might be his first release not to outdo it's predecessor, it still stands as a reflective, solid piece of work for Berman; and given the circumstances surrounding it, maybe the most important of his career. If you "get it," TN will leave you laughing, crying, and searching for the "repeat all" function. How many people really "saw God's shadow on this world?" Berman has, and as he sings "there was a place past the blues I never want to see again," on the closing track-you know he'll be back soon with more stories, jokes and coy insight.

If any of my frivolous nuisance lawsuits against Fortune 500 companies ever bear financial fruit, I would take some of my proceeds and hire David Berman to be "artist-in-residence" at my garlic farm / spiritual retreat. This is a tremendous record, noisy and accessible, with poetic lyrics and crisp production. The Eggleston photo of Martin, Bobby, and John on the front cover does an excellent job of getting this record started. Highly recommended and the perfect length for a recording - in and out in 35 minutes!

I don't think many Silver Jews fans liked this record much on its release. Following a four-year hiatus for the band during which its lead singer and songwriter tried to kill himself, got married, and finally started touring, the 'Jews came roaring back with a collection of songs that were, for the first time, more uptempo than upbeat.

The first song, "Punks in the Beerlight," is honestly pretty bad, but the way that it comes roaring out of hibernation with those big electric chords and the opening lines "Where's the paper bag that holds the liquor / just in case I feel the need to puke" is so goddamned triumphant that by the time you've realized two minutes later that Berman's already exhausted all of the emotion he'd been holding in reserve for four years and is bemusedly making up rhymes for Tolouse Lautrec, you're just happy to be there together.

In fact, that's pretty much the whole album -- though "Sleeping is the Only Love" is a standout.

We all experience this. You find the perfect bar, you frequent it every chance you get, start to soak in its character, invite friends to experience it with you and question the strength of your friendship when they don't react the same, then as soon you're worried it'll lose its charm, you find another perfect bar. The Silver Jews are like that. Dave Berman doesn't release records on a regular basis, which works to his advantage, as it allows listeners to live in the worlds of the songs, decompose the lyrics for hidden meanings and memorize each chord progression. Then, just in time, a new one is presented to the world, and a new obsession is begun. The bar comparison is a tad inappropriate this time out, Tanglewood Numbers is an attempt by Berman to document the last years of drug and alcohol addiction, and subsequent rehabilitation. What's fascinating about it is how different it sounds from the last Jews album, and how rocking it is. This is due in no small part to the aforementioned Malkmus on guitar and his Pavement bandmate Bob Nastanovich on drums (both were members of the original SJ incarnation and record off and on with Berman.) Still intact are the lyrics that are the real draw to any Jews album. Sadly, I don't have the liner notes in front of me to quote, but suffice it to say that song titles include Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed and How Can I Love You if You Won't Lie Down?

i found this album by way of cdnow.com's similar artists links and the people that bought this also bought that section. usually they send me some random works but this time they sent a diamond. i never heard of the silver jews until about a week ago (so i missed their rather large catalog thus far) but this album alone made me a fan for life. the bassy lead vocals and the occasional female voice makes this countrified rock opus sound like the new pornographers jamming quick 3 minute songs with my morning jacket. this album is 35 mins long and every second is great. start at track 1 and after track 10 repeat repeat repeat!

First off, let me say that I was no stranger to the Silver Jews before I bought this album. I already owned copies of American Water and Bright Flight when I made the fateful decision to buy this album when it was released in 2005. I would go so far as to say that I enjoyed both of them, particularly American Water. Now, thanks to this, the Silver Jews shark-jumping album, the mere mention of the name David Berman sends me into bouts of histrionics. This album will pummel you into submission, from the campy yet anthemic repetition of the line "I love you to the max!" on the opening track to the unfunnily stupid "Sometimes a pony gets depressed" straight through to the unbelievably hackneyed "God must be carving the clouds into animal shapes." I can't say much about the rest of the album. I don't think I've ever made it any further than midway.

In addition to this album being horrible in its own right, it has ruined my ability to enjoy other Silver Jews albums. Now, when I try to play American Water all I hear is the same heavy-handed, not-clever-enough-to-be-so-self-counscious rubbish that makes Tanglewood Numbers the turkey that it is.

Anyhow, if you were looking at this album as your introduction to the Silver Jews, run away while you still can. If you already have some of their earlier material, save your money, not to mention your respect for the band.

`Well, then,' continues the `confidence man',
`Just lend me your watch till to-morrow.'

The watch does not leave with its highest numbers in some sharp's wrist. It goes back into a coruscating heart again on the Silver Jew's excellent new record: Tanglewood Numbers. This clock is in full pendulation through every fifth and sixth elusive chamber of an album that abandons nothing quintessential "Silver Jews" while adding a farrago of excellent qualities that can be as hypnotically charged as watching a finch hijack a cement truck. We hear the same easy going blunt poetics and anti-poetics in a peculiar new engine here. The traipsing doors of these songs are without numbers and their carpets crepitate with stealth-speed, it's animals are the butane lighters waking up from some long running inner blazer pocket slumber finally alluding a sort of harrowing harassment from some tomcatting book of exploding matches with an out of service restaurant number emblazoned in it's insides. Oh for the black-out babies listening to this album in the future, I see you.

Yes, the arrangements on Tanglewood Numbers have more of a certain type of depth and oceanic richness then other Silver Jews albums and this is gladdening, but album to album comparisons are not that important to mention. There are harmonies and vocal exchanges that David and Cassie Berman bring to us, (such as on 'The poor, fair and good,' that are so uplifting and completely invigorating, they will make you want to star in a movie about the efflorescence of repressed gondola ushers in a make believe Venice. They are that beautiful, and use a rich calming palette of colors that squids employ as they communicate when they are tired of the ink drip or the fryer's basket. David has never sounded better vocally, and retains his signature delivery, tone, color wending sweep and drag-bulbs to the many a lyric. There are so many little touches enfolded in this body of music, scrapes and contusions of percussion, guitar, unknown sound curls all over, that you continue to pick up as you re-listen.

A mesmerizing coolness gallops out of this very complete and wonderfully integrated album. Songs one to three are neighbors that have just met in a bar for the first time and immediately begin to dance a perilous fandango that brings them closer.
There is a harder blade twisting in these numbers, its wood is darker, comely, darker. The sonic activity torpedoes out of this album's aperture with so much shadow shine whizzing, and the per-usual inspiring/super-honest lyrical prowess of D.C. Berman. Tanglewood Numbers will ambush some crinkly expectations. This is one of a very few bands out there in whatever so called genre, that you can become friends with the songs and that ineffable `whatever it is' that is a part of them, even if you get an accidental black eye in a black out of it's grid.

Every Romanian fourteen year old who decided the uneven handle bars were not worth the suffering knows all the above.