Customer Reviews

Twilight

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I didn't like this the first time I listened to it. Now I can't stop. Each time it gets better. There are few songs anywhere that uses a theramin to such perfection as does "Gravity". "Birds You Cannot See" , what lyrics, I have known about these birds since my childhood, I am glad someone else knows about them, now I feel better. "Cold, Cold, Cold", great winter driving through the mountains tune. My kids hate "country music" not that this is, and they usually comment on what i play, but when I put "Twilight" on they become real quiet, I mean really quiet. Maybe they think I finally went around the bend. I even hear my youngest mumbling along with this CD. Must be onto something.

The Handsome Family has succeeded again in improving on their enchanted craft. Rennie Sparks pens gorgeous poems filled with characters and situations as real and lonely as I've ever known. Husband Brett Sparks sings them with a warm, deep, baritone voice that would make George Jones blush. The beautiful irony of this warm/cold complement lingers with me long, long after each listen. The instrumentation on this record is spare and (again) warm, with precious little departure from their past triumphs.

I suppose these words could be said of truly ANY Handsome Family record. As one who's familiar with them all I can say, with total astonishment, that this is a new height.

Brett and Rennie understand that darkness dosen't need to be all dark, nor strangeness wierd. These tunefull songs are clever, funny, and catchy, all the while hinting at the mysteries that lurk behind the ordinariness of day to day existance. Nothing like it. This is our third Handsome Family album, we love them all, glorying in the eccentricity. Besides, my wife goes all weak at the knees under the power of Brett's awesome baritone.

Simple,stark,sad and lonesome...that's the feel all the way through. Death, despair and darkness...made so real it hurts and gives pleasure at the same time.

I think that this is the best Handsome Family album. One of the best albums I've heard so far this year. The lyrics are terrific and the rich and layered music expands with each listen. This band deserves so much more recognition than they get. If you buy any Handsome Family album you will not be disappointed.
Their last three albums, 'Through the Trees', 'In the Air', and 'Twilight' form a loose trilogy of sorts. Each is brilliant in their own way. 'Through the Trees' is beautiful and dark, giving rise to glimpses of hope and transformation in 'In the Air', finally giving way to the dark, surreal optimism and intellect of 'Twilight'.

This is an enjoyable album that grows on you the more you listen to it,

The Handsome Family consists of the husband and wife team of Brett and Rennie Sparks. Brett composes simple 'On Top Of Old Smokey-ish' music to go with Rennie's dark, often macabre poetry/lyrics. The result is startlingly original, but familiar-sounding at the same time--much more than the sum of its parts.

Twilight, their 5th release, continues along the same vein, but takes more chances musically, expanding on the basic Handsome Family theme, with very good results. 'I Know You Are There' and 'Birds You Cannot See' are almost hymn-like in their majesty. Those two songs, plus 'No One Fell Asleep Alone' and 'Passenger Pigeons' take the formula to new levels of sophistication--they are quite astonishing. Brett's warm baritone is as smooth as ever.

What keeps this release from being as satisfying as HF's previous effort, In The Air, is an air of normalcy on several songs that are rather weak. Not that the Sparks are selling out, but the piano-based 'There Is A Sound' is quite mainstream, not really a country balled at all, while 'All The TVs in Town' and 'So Long' don't quite measure up to the 4 songs mentioned above. The production, if anything, is almost too clean. Rennie's lyrics seem to have lost some of their menace as well, quirky--almost precious--for no apparent reason other than to be quirky. Non-sensical liner notes (An example: Send dead birds and chocolates to...) lead me to believe that perhaps the Sparks are not to be taken seriously, after all.

Still, a fine release, one that will no doubt be on my 10 best of the year list.