Customer Reviews

Yonder Is The Clock [Vinyl]

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4 star:		(3)
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I would have to say that "Yonder is the Clock" is perhaps, as a whole, the Felice Brothers' most complete and mature effort. In this, their 3rd album (the first two beingTonight at the Arizona and The Felice Brothers) the Felice Brothers have continued their personlized Americana style in what feels like their best all-round effort. Their talent--at melodies, wordplay, story-telling, and excitement--has not waned in the least. Their live shows are legendary. I have seen them twice (and soon to be a third time) and it just gets better. I have never heard an authentic studio album that accurately reproduced the "live" feel as this one. One such clue is the presence of what some highly-polished productions would refer to as timbre, tuning, or rhythmic imperfections that may be contained herein
but which contribute greatly to the overall quality. Fast and slow songs
alike are one-after-the-other enjoyable.
Hyperbolies aside, this band deserves attention--and this album is a great place to start.

This is in the running for my favorite album so far this year - I have gotten several dozen, many of them great, so this is no mean feat.

The ramshackle but spot-on instrumentation colors the tales of life in this teetering world with sadness, humor and grace. Think an album by Ronnie Lane and Tom Waits backed by the Old Crow Medicine Show and the Sadies.

With "Yonder Is The Clock", The Felice Brothers have created a collection of timeless music, rooted in traditional American musical forms, and with tales as old as the Bible or as new as today's headlines. As the title would suggest nostalgia and death permeate the album, as well as a sense of lives coming apart, usually because of human weakness and frailty. The brothers are solid musicians, able to confidently pull off uptempo numbers, as well as slower piano and guitar ballads. Highlights for me include "Penn Station", a gospelly tune about a dying vagrant (no photo I.D., no past to torture me), hoping to catch the train to heaven, but fearing the faster train with the devil engineer. "Chicken Wire" and "Ambulance Man" segue into each other nicely as an invalid is taken away by ambulance and pleads "please let me ride, I'm at the end". But he's been "wrapped in chicken wire of my own device" and wonders (in Ambulance Man) "where are your warm summer winds, where's my lover been?"
The fun, catchy "Run, Chicken, Run" is a zydeco tinged tale of the "chicken" running from his troubles because "chickens don't get no life after death". "The Boy From Lawrence County" is a classic tale of betrayal for love and money, where nobody comes out ahead in the end. "Cooperstown" again reminisces about baseball, but as a metaphor for achieving the unlikely when "everyone's sure that the game is over"
"Yonder Is The Clock" gets better with each listen, as truly timeless and authentic music does. By the way, the title comes from Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger" Chapter 9--worth a read in and of itself, and available online.

The Felice Brothers fall into a category of Americana that I think of as "Heartland Gothic." That is, they use traditional Appalachian folk forms and mix them up with bits of New Orleans and dark concepts to create a sound that owes as much to Tom Waits and other musical explorers as it does to traditional American music. It helps that they seem to be the only current practitioners of my newly coined genre. They're unique.

Their new release, Yonder Is the Clock, takes everything that was right about their previous release, The Felice Brothers, and hones it to near perfection. There aren't just a bunch of long stretches of balladry, but rather a mix of tempos which help keep the sound consistently interesting. The ballads that are here (especially 'Sailor Song') create a dark, moody atmosphere that, while a bit unsettling, is never unwelcoming. The uptempo numbers like 'Penn Station' and 'Run Chicken Run' alleviate the dark tension with their rollicking, ramshackle playing and hoarse, almost-but-not-quite-rock vocals. However, the uptempo numbers still maintain the themes of the album--namely, hard living, occasional violence, and death. Somehow, this doesn't get depressing, possibly because it sounds like the brothers are enjoying themselves so much on the fast ones.

Vocally, there's not a good technical singer in the bunch. However, the vocals are consistently folky (some have called them 'Dylanesque,' but you might as well call them 'Steve Forbert-esque'), rough and tremendously human. They're able to do what the good vocalists have always done--bring the audience into the world of the song. And they do it very well.

Lyrically, it's chock full of good lines and well constructed songs, with good dark humor cropping up often, especially in the faster numbers ("She's the fairest of them all/She loves her Adderall"). If there's a clunker here, it's the ode to that baseball mecca "Cooperstown." It's slow, and I found it the only time during the album where my attention wandered. That said, I'm sure baseball fans might love it on its own merits. Not being a big fan myself, a lot of the references probably went right by me.

Yonder Is The Clock fulfills the promise of The Felice Brothers--this is wonderful music, tightly played, deep in concept but welcoming in execution, and with just enough outside influence creeping in to keep them from being an empty genre band. They transcend that here, and Yonder Is The Clock will hopefully start the clock on their wider recognition.

The Felice Brothers have a way of making you day dream in Sephia. Through tradition and some 21st century flare, they embody everything great about Americana. This 13-song effort is the bands second album in two years.
While it may be slightly slower and sadder then thier previous albums, as a whole, it is much more romantic.
There are some slow anecdotes that demand minimal attention but if you do listen, and really listen, you'll be completely satisfied. Possibly the song that pulls the heart strings more than all is called "Cooperstown." Give you two guesses to figure out what that's about. Seriously, any band that can make a beautiful thing like baseball and throw in a curveball with some fantastic lyrics has my vote.
Another song called "Katie Dear," is vulnerable and so simply elegant. The Felice Brothers have a way to minimize their subject matter and make it grand. A simple drum beat, minor bassline, finger strumming and a trombone and they create a sweet story.
One song that will get you off your feet is "Penn Station." This knee-slapping tune outstanding.
Give it a listen, especially if your looking for something new. I gaurantee you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I didn't quite appreciate this CD as much as I liked their self-titled CD, the one with 'Frankie's Gun' on it. An aside here; these guys do gallows humor as good as Richard Thompson. However, after several listenings, I'm convinced that it's every bit as strong, just a bit more serious. The Big Surprise reeks of apocalyptic dread, Tim La Haye and those second coming of Ja-hee-sus buffoons should wish they could do it that well. Plus, you've got betrayal-Boy From Lawrence County -and you've got the boys in the band flipping off Mister D again-Penn Station, Chicken Wire, and Memphis Flu. The music sounds, for the most part, like time travel to the 1890's and brings to mind The Devil In The White City and old photos of the St. Louis and San Francisco Expos, with all the the derangements and deviance of those proper Victorians horribly and hilariously exposed. If I had to choose a personal favorite song here, it would be Buried In Ice, in which a philosophical drunk in your favorite Bowery saloon-he's wearing a bowler hat, has a handlebar mustache, and is about to fall on his face into the spitoon-rambles on about portentous topics that make perfect sense to him but is gibberish to anyone else. A hot tip for all you musical detectives out there: The ghastly gothic organ riff that closes Chicken Wire was lifted note-for-note from Homer Quincy Smith's frightening 1926 rendition of 'I Want Jesus to Talk With Me' on American Primitive Vol 2. If you like the Felice Brothers, you should get American Primitive. Those rascals care enough to steal from the best. And if you appreciate exhilirating music played by raving grinning anarchists, you'll definitely like the Felice Brothers.

"The Big Surprise" is an inauspicious, disodent beginning, deceptively creating the impression that the Felice Brothers are blowing this off. The approach seems facetious until the images begin to build on one another, and slowly the Felice Brothers are sucking us in. The vocals are rough like sandpaper, but musically the band makes great use of the accordian, piano or organ to add color. "Run Chicken Run" has a sort of hoe down vibe to it, but also a nod to Penny Lane in its street scene references. "Boy From Lawrence County" tells a tale as deftly as a fine short story, with wistful music and melody adding texture. Simon Felice's voice is an acquired taste; the arrangements are spot-on whether creating a good-time dance feel, a heart-wrenching sadness or a melancholy somewhere in between. The lyrics are fine-hewned throughout without a wrong word anywhere.

I have to confess, their last Album, THE FELICE BROTHERS, is one of my favorites!! I have even posted what I think are accurate lyrics to that work on: [...] Feel free to send me corrections, additions, fill-ins, etc. Not selling anything, just sharing.
This one is OK, but doesn't seem to have the "heart" of the other. I have seen them in person, and it was fun. I hope to see them again, soon.

They've done it again, but better. Every song is a jewel and is made to last for ever. Time will put this record where it deserves. Top.