+------------------------------------------+
| |
| iPC |
| |
+----------------+------------------------------------------+----------------+
| |
| Artist : The Books |
| Album : Lost And Safe |
| Label : Tomlab |
| Catalog # : tom50 |
| |
| |
+-------------------------------[Release Info]-------------------------------+
| |
| Source : CD |
| Genre : Indie |
| Language : English |
| Rip date : 2005-04-13 |
| Store date : 2005-04-05 |
| Rip tool : EAC |
| Encoder : LAME 3.90.3 --alt-preset standard |
| Quality : 191kbps avg VBR 44.1/Joint Stereo |
| Url : http://www.tomlab.de |
| |
+--------------------------------[Track List]--------------------------------+
| |
| 1. A Little Longing Goes Away 3:30 |
| 2. Be Good To Them Always 4:51 |
| 3. Vogt Dig For Kloppervok 3:54 |
| 4. Smells Like Content 3:41 |
| 5. It Never Changes To Stop 4:01 |
| 6. An Animated Description Of Mr. Maps 4:38 |
| 7. Venice 1:42 |
| 8. None But Shining Hours 2:43 |
| 9. If Not Now, Whenever 3:35 |
| 10. An Owl With Knees 4:41 |
| 11. Twelve Fold Chain 4:44 |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| 42:00 |
| |
+-------------------------------[Release Notes]------------------------------+
| |
| |
| Note: SDR's advance was grp.req as a nuke here is the retail. |
| |
| |
| Over two albums, the Books have plucked sampled voices from their |
| original context and arranged them inside simple compositions for |
| sliced-and-diced guitar, banjo, and cello. They've taken moments of |
| contemplation-- when one understands something on an emotional level but |
| can't quite articulate his thoughts-- and dressed it up in a melodic |
| frame. By transmitting at the frequency of pre-conscious association and |
| intuition, Thought for Food and The Lemon of Pink were immediately |
| accessible despite absences of obvious reference points. Both records |
| felt like gifts, demanding little from the listener but paying out |
| handsomely. |
| |
| With their fresh sound and economic construction (the first two releases |
| were each under 40 minutes), the Books did well to stick to a similar |
| template on back-to-back records. But in preparing for their third |
| album, one senses Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong felt as if they'd |
| mastered this approach and needed to try something different. On Lost |
| and Safe, the Books take the vocals and song structures hinted at on |
| Thought for Food and fleshed out on The Lemon of Pink and make them the |
| centerpiece. |
| |
| This time it's Zammuto alone on the mic; Anne Doerner, whose spare vocal |
| contributions to The Lemon of Pink wound up being a highlight, doesn't |
| sing any lead. There's more processed electric guitar (often used in a |
| clicking, repetitive manner reminiscent of classical minimalism) and far |
| less cello. Despite live vocals on nearly every track and the shifts in |
| texture, the approach is still very recognizably the Books. In a way, |
| the original lyrics aim for the same level of engagement as the odd |
| samples, finding and skirting the edge between different meanings. "Yes |
| and no are just distinguished by distinction, so we chose the |
| in-between" are the first words Zammuto sings in his hushed whisper on |
| the opening "A Little Longing Goes Away", and that sort of ambiguity |
| sets the tone for the record. Words for the Books have been a subject in |
| and of themselves, worth hearing purely as sound, and the written lyrics |
| here have a similar character. |
| |
| Most of Lost and Safe is pleasant enough but not much more. "Be Good to |
| Them Always" is the record's lone great track, one that hints at |
| potential interesting directions down the road. As clicky electric |
| guitar with some backward reverb pans across the stereo field, Zammuto |
| sings in concert with the sampled voices, finding the hidden melody in |
| the deadpan newsman deliver of lines like "I can hear a collective |
| rumbling in America" and "This great society is going smash." |
| Reminiscent of Steve Reich's "Different Trains", which built tunes from |
| the speech inflections of interviewed holocaust survivors, "Be Good to |
| Them Always" is a fantastic reminder of the musicality of the spoken |
| word, an idea that lurks constantly inside the music of the Books. |
| |
| One of the more interesting things about the Books first two records was |
| their democratic production; the music never seems to push the listeners |
| ear toward any one element. But now Zammuto's voice is clearly the |
| focus, and though his quiet and half-spoken phrasing works well with the |
| arrangements, the "tunes," as such, don't necessarily warrant the added |
| attention. It's as though, with a few exceptions, the Books weren't |
| quite sure what they wanted to do and they wound up stuck halfway |
| between proper songs and the ambiguity of samples. Though the Books do a |
| nice job here bending lyrics to fit the open-ended tone of their |
| compositional style, the original vocals wind up draining their sound of |
| mystery, and Lost and Safe seems by far more conventional than their |
| previous two records. |
| |
| -Mark Richardson, April 5, 2005 |
| |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+