CD Odyssey Disc 1811: The Handsome Family

As long-time readers will know, when I go to a live show I like to pair a review of that show with their most recent album. That’s what we’ve got here! So if you like just studio album reviews, here you go and if you are wondering “yeah, but what are they like live?” that follows immediately after.

Disc 1811 is…Hollow

Artist: The Handsome Family

Year of Release: 2023

What’s up with the Cover? In addition to being a talented musician Handsome Family member Rennie Sparks is also an artist, and this cover is one of her paintings.

Here we have a snake in a reed-clogged culvert. This is a fine place for a snake, unless you happen to also be hiding in that culvert, maybe after a jailbreak or bank robbery gone wrong. Then you’ll wish the snake would just move along. Then again, maybe local law enforcement would take one look and remark, “he’d be crazy to go into that snake-filled culvert” and go search elsewhere, thus securing your escape.

Unless you get bitten and die while waiting them out.

I guess what I’m saying is whether a snake in a culvert is a good thing or a bad thing is highly circumstantial.

How I Came To Know It: I have been a Handsome Family fan for about ten years and buy their albums as they come out. This proved more difficult than usual with “Hollow” as I couldn’t find a CD version anywhere. I bided my time, however, and eventually was able to snap it up from their merch table at a show last weekend.

How It Stacks Up: I now have 13 Handsome Family albums, which, given their penchant for dark, ill-omened tales, feels right. Of those 13, “Hollow” comes in at #11. This is not a bad thing it is just that the Handsome Family have a lot of great records.

Ratings: 3 stars

“Hollow” is the first album by the Handsome Family (aka husband and wife team Brett and Rennie Sparks) in seven years. I’m good with artists taking as much time as they need to make great art but man, that was a long wait.

It is hard to wait on a new Handsome Family record, because while you are waiting there isn’t anything else that’s going to fill that gap (other than relistening to old Handsome Family records). Their mix of folk/country with Gothic horror is a style all unto itself. As Rennie Sparks herself noted at the live show (reviewed below), when she wants to hear a song about the sound a cement truck makes, and there isn’t one, she’s got to go write it herself.

Rennie is the lyricist of the pair, and while there are no cement trucks on this particular record, there are plenty of oddball and unexpected images to go around. Sparks’ imagination is deep, weird and dark in equal measure. If you like those kinds of things in your writing you will have a very good time listening to their latest.

It is hard to pick a favourite image from a record dripping in this much poetry, but I offer this little tidbit from “The Oldest Water”:

“The first living cell
Growing fat in the shallows
Met the first stranger
When it split down the middle

“But once made separate
There’s no going whole
Water loves melting
Flesh eats alone.”

No one makes science and nature quite so cool as Rennie Sparks. In addition to science, this bit of joy also introduces us to the notion that the same moment that birthed companionship for the first time, also introduced the awareness of isolation. A little body horror is thrown in for good measure that would make David Cronenberg proud.

In other places Rennie shows her softer side, with the pastoral “Shady Lake,” that is an immersive journey into the mystery and wonder of nature.

As poems alone this would be a joy, but Brett Sparks brings prodigious musical talent to the songs that adds layers and emotionally complexity. The best melody on offer is the album’s opening track, “Joseph” principally because of how it creates a hymn-like quality even as it tells the tale of what I think is serious bit of haunting, and maybe a summoning. Brett takes Rennie’s ever off-putting (but delicious) words and generates an unexpected feeling of elation. You won’t be afraid of Joseph’s arrival, but only because Brett’s reassuring baritone lets you know it’s going to be OK.

I should note at this time that I don’t definitively know what any of these songs are about. I learned at the concert that the inspiration of the work can vary from the final product when the Handsome Family get their writing hats on. I prefer to confront art directly without a lot of backstory whenever possible, so this is just what I took from it all after a few listens. Whatever Brett and Rennie tell you these are about is correct – the stories are theirs.

If there was anything negative, I think it is only that the record suffered unfairly from familiarity. I know exactly what the Handsome Family are going to sound like, and my soul is already overstuffed with favourites, making it hard to add more. “Joseph” felt the newest in terms of approach, but otherwise it was more of the same, although here and here I longed for the more stripped-down approach from previous records. This is a minor quibble, and for the most part it was great to get another helping of Handsome Family magic after so many years away.

Best tracks: Joseph, The Oldest Water, Shady Lake, Good Night

The Concert: March 8, 2025 at the Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver

The Handsome Family is one of a few bands I’m willing to undertake an overnight plane ride to Vancouver and back just to see live. By the time you count airfare and hotel, this is an expensive outing, so my desire to see the band has to be significant.

This was my first trip to the Biltmore cabaret, which is in East Vancouver and generally described by online reviewers as a “dive bar”. I have known many a dive bar in my time, and was not deterred by such descriptions.

Upon arrival I did find it a bit divey, but not in a bad way. More of a neighbourhood local kind of way, with sumptuous red velvet bank seating along the walls and a few high stools here and there. The crowd was rough at first sight, but universally friendly and welcoming as soon as you got to know them.

Case in point: we arrived a bit later and all the primo seats were taken, but Sheila fearlessly approached a couple of women in their sixties and asked if we could join them in their banquette. We were welcomed with open arms.

After hitting the merch table a bit hard (I’m a sucker for merch) we settled in for the show.

Early on, singer Brett seemed to struggle a bit with his mic work (or the mic was touchy) and we’d lose him if he leaned out too far, but like a true professional within a song or two he had the range down and was making magic happen.

After many years he and partner Rennie have their banter down to an art form, and if the bits they did between songs were rehearsed they sure sounded organic to me. Open-hearted, opinionated and warm, Rennie takes the role of delightfully weird Goth lady with Brett playing the crotchety straight-man. It was just the right amount of chatting to whet your appetite for the next song without ever over-explaining.

The Handsome Family have a catalogue as expansive as it is dark and creepy, and they played music from throughout their career, with a good mix across the years that satisfied the ravenous fanboy within me.

They played many of my favourites, including “Bottomless Hole”, “The Loneliness of Magnets”, Weightless Again” and “24-Hour Store”. Yeah, I was disappointed not to also get “Cold, Cold, Cold”, “Gold” and “Arlene” but expecting only my favourites felt greedy, and frankly the songs they selected instead were also great.

There isn’t a lot of stage antics (if any) with the band staying glued to their spots throughout. The most physical they got was a bit of aggressive strumming on the heavier tunes. You are instead held by the magic of Brett’s vocals and the apocalyptic poetry of Rennie’s lyrics pouring out of him.

The sound was excellent, even along the side of the venue in the banquette, which was just as well because as you can see from the photo above, we could see very little. Mostly the front half of Brett’s head and most of his guitar (the rest being obscured by a large, suspended block speaker). This did not bother me in the slightest. I’ve been reading a lot of Seneca and Epictetus of late and all that stoicism had me well-prepared to accept and enjoy the circumstance.

There was briefly a very tall dude in front of us, but the ladies at our table brooked no detractions from their concert going experience. One remarked, “I’m going to move that man six inches to the right” and following a polite but firm exchange of words managed to move him a full foot and a half.

After the show, I met Brett hanging around talking to fans in front of the merch table. He looked like he could be anyone’s unassuming but cool uncle, sipping on a tall can of Budweiser and we briefly shot the shit about life, music and stuff. I disengaged before too long though, as my Canadian politeness kicked in.

Overall, it was a fine show, well performed and memorable and ere we left, Sheila exhorted them to come and play in our hometown one day. I hope they do.

CD Odyssey Disc 1416: The Handsome Family

This next review is one of my favourite bands, but not one of my favourite albums.

Disc 1416 is…. Smothered and Covered

Artist: The Handsome Family

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? Inside a house merriment ensues, but outside? We have a tale of two harpists in the rain. One harpist appears dead, the other, nervous. Given this is a Handsome Family album it is safe to assume the second harpist murdered the first.  Why? We may never know but everyone knows you don’t muscle in on a fellow harpist’s favourite corner and put down your hat. Harpists take that shit seriously.

How I Came To Know It: A while back I had a few Handsome Family albums and was looking for more, when I found their website was offering a deal to buy their entire collection of 12 CDs at a discount. I did it and made a deal to sell the three I had, to both replace them anew, and get seven more that I wanted. Two more albums weren’t on my list but were basically free when you tallied all the transactions up. “Smothered and Covered” was one of those.

How It Stacks Up: I have twelve Handsome Family albums. If you already knew that congratulations – you do well on math and logic problems. Maybe consider taking the LSAT. Anyway, “Smothered and Covered” is OK, but it isn’t one of my favourites. I’ll put it in at #12. Hey – someone has to be last.

Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3

The byline under “Smothered and Covered” is “a personal collection of rarities including odd covers, bathroom demos, and orphaned songs.” With such a wide assortment of castaways you might expect the overall quality to be uneven, and you’d be right.

If you haven’t read my previous reviews, the Handsome Family is a husband and wife team Brett and Rennie Sparks, who sing a mix of folk, alternative country that tell stories featuring a lot of weirdness and murder. The horror writer in me loves them, and so does the music lover. I did not, however, love “Smothered and Covered”.

The ingredients are all there, and the album gets off to a promising start with the previously unreleased “There’s a City” which is Handsome Family engaged on full creep. Tinkling xylophone as Brett sings about a city where “people spin in dizzy circles” and where the houses are “made of smoke”. Great stuff right out of a Lovecraft novel or Twilight Zone episode.

This one is an original, and the album basically has four sub-categories of songs: demos of previously released songs, different versions of previously released material, covers, and weird ass musical experiments.

I wasn’t enamoured of the demos, which sounded like just that and in each case I preferred the final polished version. They weren’t terrible, it just didn’t add a lot if you own all the other albums. Maybe as a Handsome Family fan (and I am the biggest I know) I am supposed to swoon at the notion of multiple versions of songs; swoon I did not.

The covers are solid, but two stood out. Their version of the Kris Kristofferson classic “Sunday Morning Coming Down” has a haunting quality neither Kris nor Johnny Cash evoked. This being the Handsome Family, I imagined the narrator wasn’t just waking up after a bender, but from one where he blacked out and upon regaining consciousness finds a dead hooker in the bathtub. It gave the line “I fumbled through the closet for my clothes and cleanest dirty shirt” all new dread. It probably stinks, but at least it ain’t covered in blood.

Also good is their cover of the traditional murder ballad, “Knoxville Girl” featuring yet another loser murdering a woman who wouldn’t marry him. In trying to find earlier versions, I happened upon this 1953 clip by the Wilburn Brothers where they inexplicably think it would be fun to “send this one out to all the folks viewing in Knoxville, Tennessee.” Not exactly the kind of dedication that’s going to earn you a key to the city.

They also do a superb cover of Bill Munroe’s “I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling” which, refreshingly, has no murder but still involves an untimely death, this being the Handsome Family and all.

The real crime of the record (and what holds it south of 3 stars) are the half-dozen experimental tunes, with titles like “Prepared Piano #1” and “Cello #2” they are basically cacophonous explorations of what kinds of sounds you can make on the titular instruments. It may make you ask “why?” but it won’t make it enjoyable. These tracks are all super-short (under 90 seconds each) but they are not short enough. Again, I fear for the safety of my Handsome Family Fan Club credentials saying this. I’m probably supposed to revel in the weirdness. Ordinarily I would, but I want my weirdness to also be wrapped up in something recognizable as a song.

Near the end the Sparks recapture the magic, with a depressing Christmas song wrapped up in destitution and hunger with “Stupid Bells” which isn’t listed below as one of the best tracks but is a lot of fun if, like me, you enjoy creepy holiday tunes.

Overall this record suffers the fate of a lot of these kind of “castaways” records, being uneven and overlong (18 tracks) but there are some solid gains here – certainly enough to earn its place back on the CD shelves.

Best tracks: There’s a City, Sunday Morning Coming Down, I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling, Knoxville Girl

CD Odyssey Disc 1118: The Handsome Family

After a long day I’m home late and tired, but at least it was a pleasant walk in the dusk of spring. Good thing I got home while there was still some light, because this next record can make any walk in the dark a little more unnerving – that’s part of the fun!

Disc 1118 is… In the Air

Artist: The Handsome Family

Year of Release: 2001

What’s up with the Cover? Handsome Family album photos are often hilariously credited in the liner notes, but no such luck this time. As a result we’re left with a boring picture of some rolling green hills.

How I Came To Know It: This was part of my massive purchase of Handsome Family albums direct from the band about a year ago. Thanks again to Brett and Rennie for being so awesome and response to your fans!

How It Stacks Up:  I have 12 Handsome Family albums. They are all great, so do not judge “In the Air” harshly that I rank it way down at #10. It is still good, but there is just too much good stuff to pick from with this band.

Ratings: 3 stars

The Handsome Family returns to the Odyssey again, bringing with them yet more Gothic terrors, idle murders and irrational fears. The fact that I can’t get enough of these dreadful things just proves how talented the Handsome Family are at writing songs about them.

“In the Air” is just a year before “Twilight” (reviewed just two albums ago at Disc 1116) and it has a similar sound, although with even stronger ties to old school and outlaw country sounds. A lot songs sound like a cross between the boom-chuck of Johnny Cash’s guitar and the lilting melodies of Johnny Horton. The title track in particular feels like it fell right out of 1960. These are songs for driving, or – if you can’t afford a car – hopping trains. Either way, they give a great sense of momentum even as they sing about mostly troubling topics.

The album opens strong with “Don’t Be Scared,” a gentle rolling melody that delivers its message well compositionally, with a song that makes you feel rested and at ease. “Don’t Be Scared” is almost a pastoral poem, and even though I don’t usually like it when songs fade out, here it gives the experience an enduring quality; as though you’ll continue to be alright long after the song is no longer playing.

This being the Handsome Family, not being scared won’t last long and soon enough the album is rollicking along describing a terrifying fear of bridges (In the Air”), the destruction of beauty (“A Beautiful Thing”), violent alcoholism (“So Much Wine”) and more than a few murders and strange disappearances.

As ever, Brett Sparks composes and plays all the music and sings and his wife Rennie writes all the lyrics. Brett is a great player who knows how to compose a melody that is new but seems timeless, and a voice that is high and haunting. Rennie has a natural talent for telling stories, and tends to use it to tell horrifying ones. Within the first couple of lines of any song she has captured your interest and hints at the darkness that will come. “Up Falling Rock Hill” leads off with:

“Up Falling rock Hill where the leaves swoop like bats

I shot my brother William five times in the back.”

And “Lie Down” begins:

“Tuesday at dawn Michael’s glasses washed ashore

With a Styrofoam box and two broken oars.”

Or “Poor Poor Lenore,” which starts:

“Poor, poor Lenore carried off by crows

As she wandered alone where the red oaks grow.”

Basically if you’re named in a Handsome Family song, there’s a good chance things aren’t going to go well for you.

While “In the Air” isn’t my favourite Handsome Family album (I found “A Beautiful Thing’s” melody awkward – although that might have been the point – and while I liked the idea of a milkman in love with the moon (“The Sad Milkman”) I wasn’t drawn into the dreamlike tale the way I think was intended.

However, these are very minor quibbles on an album where the biggest shortcoming is not being the same level as some other Handsome Family albums. This may not be the first album I’d recommend by them but if you want more murder and mystery in your life (and who doesn’t?) by all means pick up “In the Air” and settle in to get a little unsettled.

Best tracks: Don’t Be Scared, In The Air, So Much Wine, Lie Down

CD Odyssey Disc 1116: The Handsome Family

The CD Odyssey continues with one of my favourite new (to me) bands.

Disc 1116 is… Twilight

Artist: The Handsome Family

Year of Release: 2001

What’s up with the Cover? Twilight in a decaying forest. I can’t tell if this is a painting or a picture, but there is no painting credit in the liner notes. The picture credit reads “I don’t know where any of these photos came from. I woke up in a pool of blood and there they were. – Rennie”. Never change, Handsome Family.

How I Came To Know It: I fell hard for the Handsome Family a year ago and bought all their albums in a package deal direct from the band. It was a lot of fun, and a good deal too.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 12 Handsome Family albums. Of those 12, “Twilight” is one of the better ones. I’ll rank it 4^th.

Ratings: 4 stars

“Twilight” is yet another haunting, troubled mix of metaphysical dread, supernatural experiences and offbeat observations of nature courtesy of husband and wife team Brett and Rennie Sparks. It sounds a lot like other Handsome Family albums you may have heard, which is to say, really good.

The Handsome Family have a style all their own, mixing early country and western, modern indie and elements of old school fifties pop crooners. By this stage of their career the hard rock elements are mostly gone, but don’t let that fool you – this music is the kind of edgy that sneaks up on you.

Most of that edge is generated by the combination of Brett’s haunting echoing vocals matched to Rennie’s creepy lullaby lyrics. The topics on the album run the gamut, including environmental observations, Lovecraftian meditations, ghost stories and dead animals. These are songs you’d sing to kids at bedtime if you wanted them to stay up all night, too scared to sleep, or maybe just over-stimulated by the majesty and mystery of the world around them.

As befits an album called “Twilight” there is a sense of decay and fading light that threads its way through these songs. The ladies in “The Snow White Diner” are deaf, and the man who hears angels in “Gravity” is blind. When there is sound it tends to be an unwholesome mix of nature and civilization, sighing together. Or as Brett sings at one point:

“There is a sound sung by the sea

And plastic bags caught in trees.”

Until I heard the line I’d never put those two sounds together, now my mind can’t separate them.

“A Dark Eye” captures that uneasy feeling you get from time to time that something isn’t right, that you’re being watched:

“In the parking lot where I waited alone

A white bird sat sleeping on a broken pay phone.

There came a black beetle dragging off a green fly

Underneath a parked car and then out of sight.

And I felt a dark eye turn its gaze upon me

As if the earth could see. A dark eye fell on me.”

The Handsome Family write creepy like no one else, but the confessional tones of Brett as he sings the lines makes the whole experience feel comforting, as if you are being wrapping in a blanket of weirdness. It isn’t for everyone, and it is definitely not for the easily troubled. Fans of horror though, come and listen.

“Cold, Cold, Cold” is a suspenseful ghost story. A man drives across a field where people sometimes disappear only to see a woman weeping in the frozen snow. He gets out of the car to investigate and maybe lend a hand but - this being a Handsome Family song - things get strange quick:

“She drifted away in the swirling cold

down through the fields and their frozen rows.

But I heard her howl, I heard her moan.

She called my name in the swirling snow.

When I turned to run back to my car

There was nothing waiting but her frozen arms.”

Musically, “Twilight” is less interesting than some other Handsome Family albums, but while the melodies are very basic, they rise and fall in an easy cadence. This serves as a non-intrusive backdrop to the black humour, horror and metaphysical contemplation the songs are obsessed with.

The production is also rough around the edges (according to the liner notes the album was recorded on a Macintosh G3 using Pro Tools) but none of this stands in the way of Rennie Sparks twisted insightful poetry, and Brett’s reverent and committed delivery as he converts them to song. “Twilight” is a long walk in a heavy wood but if you’re not afraid of the dark, it’s a walk worth taking.

Best tracks: The Snow White Diner, Passenger Pigeons, A Dark Eye, There Is a Sound, Gravity, Cold Cold Cold, So Long

CD Odyssey Disc 1047: The Handsome Family

This is my second Handsome Family review in the last three albums. What are the odds? Well, there are about 130 albums in my “new album” section and ten of those were Handsome Family, so the odds were 1 in 13. Math isn’t all that mysterious at this level. Higher math – now that stuff will mess you up.

Disc 1047 is…Last Days of Wonder

Artist: The Handsome Family

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover? This is the last of six albums in a row where the Handsome Family put nature shots on their covers. I guess you could call this picture “the last day of wonder” if wonder is Mother Nature. The liner notes only indicate that this picture was “found in a hollow log.” I really hope that’s true.

How I Came To Know It: This was just one of many Handsome Family albums I discovered in a glut of music, after I ordered their entire discography direct from the band. Thanks Handsome Family!

How It Stacks Up:  I have 12 Handsome Family albums. Of those 12, I put “Last Days of Wonder” in at a respectable 7^th.

Ratings: 4 stars

The last couple of Handsome Family reviews focused on their early sound, but on “Last Days of Wonder” we get to see the mature band, with seven albums under their belt. Here they have fully developed their weird, troubled and totally compelling blend of folk and rock for our listening pleasure.

Gone are the crunchy guitar riffs and feedback of early efforts, replaced with easygoing country beats, lilting melodies and richly detailed folk ballads. Along the way, the husband and wife team of Rennie and Brett Sparks have found a full and rounded sound that fills the room despite the relatively sparse arrangements.

I was impressed anew with the production values on the album after I read in the liner notes that it was put together in their home studio by Brett Sparks using “a Mac and lots of wires and microphones.” I have a feeling they are deliberately selling themselves short, because this is a far cry from lo-fi. Along the way Sparks has become as skilled a producer as he is a musician.

Interesting decisions abound, including a jazzy trombone on “Tesla’s Hotel Room” and what I suspect is a Theremin on “These Golden Jewels.” The latter of these songs, with its vaudevillian circus show feel and unorthodox syncopation sounds like it was inspired by the future ghost of Tom Waits. It wasn’t a favourite for me musically, but it was hard not to like on the grounds of creativity alone.

“Tesla’s Hotel Room” tells of the life and death of Nikola Tesla, giving specific detail to the life of one of history’s great inventors. It is a brilliant example of Rennie Sparks’ exceptional talent as a writer, as she weaves his inventions, diet and cause of death all into a single stanza:

“But Tesla grew thin eating only Saltines

Going days in his lab without any sleep

Dreaming of God as an X-ray beam, he was

Hit by a cab while crossing the street.”

Well, technically Tesla lives for a while after the accident, but don’t worry, Rennie covers that as well before she’s done.

On “After We Shot the Grizzly” she writes of a dystopian future, and a last band of humans trying to make it through the wilderness “after the airship crashed.” What airship? Hey, it’s a short story – they start best in the middle of the action. The song gets dark from there, including adding the devouring of the pack horses, the killing a tiny antelope and the death of the titular grizzly. Then they pack on fever and disease, internal strife and in the end I believe it descends into cannibalism.

I tried to describe this song’s plot to my coworkers over a coffee today and their reaction was “that’s all in one song?” It sure is, and they even make it a bit of a creepy love song along the way. Such is the power of poetry, my friends.

As ever, the Handsome Family are masters of the unreliable narrator. On “Beautiful William” the narrator can’t understand why William inexplicably disappears one day. However, given that the narrator later teams up with “Polly from Red River” and “Rose from Green Falls” to break into his house and trash the place, we can hardly blame William for making himself scarce. He’s probably fleeing them.

Brett Sparks may not write the words, but he sells them beautifully, with his rich and airy voice telling the story like some kind of ancient troubadour recanting tales around a campfire or tavern hearth.

Songs like “Beautiful William” and “Tesla’s Hotel Room” are appropriately somber affairs, and the drunken outings on “Flapping Your Broken Wings” (delivered with a touch of mania) and “Bowling Alley Bar” (delivered with a drunken sway) further demonstrate the band knows just what feeling to infuse into the music to score the action at hand.

When I rolled this album I was a bid trepidatious. After all, I’d just reviewed one of their records, and a third only 30 albums before that. Would I have anything else to say? Fortunately the Handsome Family never fail to deliver a fresh set of inspirational tales, with a perfectly selected musically accompaniment to drive the story home.

Best tracks: Your Great Journey, Tesla’s Hotel Room, After We Shot the Grizzly, Flapping Your Broken Wings, Beautiful William, All the Time in Airports  

CD Odyssey Disc 1045: The Handsome Family

After a lovely night out last night I am feeling a little less than 100% this morning. It’s nothing that a greasy brunch won’t solve, though.

Disc 1045 is…Odessa

Artist: The Handsome Family

Year of Release: 1994

What’s up with the Cover? A man and his dog. I had all kinds of clever one liners for this photo, but I couldn’t top the actual liner note, which reads: “Cover photo found in the dumpster behind our apartment and used without permission. Sorry.” Awesome.

How I Came To Know It: I discovered the band through the “True Detective” soundtrack, and got most of their albums – including this one – in a huge mail order direct from the band.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 12 Handsome Family albums. It is hard to rank them because most of them came into my house in a giant glut, and I haven’t had a chance to properly enjoy them individually. That said, I’ll put “Odessa” in at number 6.

Ratings: 4 stars

“Odessa” is the Handsome Family’s first album, and they are still finding their sound. The lilting melodies and creepy murder ballads are here, but so is a garage rock sound that you would expect to hear on a Seattle grunge album, not a folk record. Coming to the band through their more recent albums first, this was initially jarring, but after a few listens I realized how great the combination is.

The opening track, “Here’s Hopin’” is a fuzzed out guitar song, full of feedback and grit. It is a simple, slowly changing chord progression with Brett Sparks’ vocals floating back in the mix, half rock star, half ghostly message from beyond. It wasn’t the folk music like I was expecting, but it didn’t matter.

When the Handsome Family rock out (as they do often on “Odessa”) the influence of Nirvana is palpable, which – given this album came out in 1994 – is totally understandable.

The band completely shifts gear with “Arlene,” a murder ballad folk song about a man who kidnaps a local waitress and takes her to an old cave. This song is dangerous because the tune is so catchy you want to sing along, but if you do it in mixed company people will think you’re disturbed. The song skillfully navigates around the gore, hinting at it without ever spelling it out. Instead the focus is on the troubled way the protagonist sees the world, and Arlene’s obvious terror at his unwanted advances. The petulant way he sings:

“Arlene, you wouldn’t even let me hold your hand

When I stopped you in the road you just turned and ran.”

Clearly implies we should be feeling sorry for him, but instead we just feel for Arlene’s plight. The tension of how we’re being presented the facts by the killer and how we’re receiving them is pure genius.

The song styles vary, sometimes rocking out, sometimes light and folksy, and sometimes a mix of the two, such as on “One Way Up” where the song is principally a mournful folk song, but with a couple of feedback-filled electric guitar solos in the middle of it all. The connection between Brett’s mournful singing and the angst of the guitar ably captures externalized confusion and internalized rage.

As ever, chief writer Rennie Sparks is gifted with the turn of a phrase. On “Giant Ant” she fearlessly mixes the beautiful and the troubling:

“Butterflies are monsters when you look at them too close

And once you touch their wings they’ll never fly again

Yellow is for buttercups and streams of hot piss

Red is for I love you and hemorrhages”

Halfway through the record, “Water Into Wine” delivers a throwback thirties devotional. The Handsome Family play it straight but in the context of the rest of the album it becomes ironic. They send up the simplicity of the song simply by keeping a straight face and letting its proximity to all the confusion and murder of the songs around it to serve as the counterpoint.

My love for the Handsome Family is new but fierce, and I’ve bought so many of their albums in a short span it will take some time to fully grok their body of work. In this light, I’m happy that the first two albums I’ve reviewed were their first two. “Milk and Scissors” was the beginning of the sound that would endure. “Odessa” showcases their range, and how their career could have gone in almost any direction, because good writing is good writing; whether the guitar is plugged in or not is an afterthought.

Best tracks: Here’s Hopin’, Arlene, One Way Up, Giant Ant, Everything that Rises Must Converge, The Last, Moving Furniture Around

CD Odyssey Disc 1016: The Handsome Family

As I alluded on my previous entry, I went a little overboard recently and bought this next artist’s entire discography direct from the band’s website. So if you end up seeing a lot of album reviews for this band in the next little while, now you’ll know why.

What can I say - when I fall for a band, I fall hard.

Disc 1016 is…Milk and Scissors

Artist: The Handsome Family

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover? Where you might expect to see a depiction of milk and/or scissors we instead get two dogs. Maybe they are named “Milk” and “Scissors” although those aren’t exactly classic dog names.

How I Came To Know It: I found out about the Handsome Family when their song “Far From Any Road” was used for the opening credits to the TV show “True Detective,” but since then I’ve delved pretty hard into their catalogue, as noted in the teaser above. My mass mail order included “Milk and Scissors” (and a lot more besides).

How It Stacks Up:  I have 12 Handsome Family albums, which is all of them other than one obscure German import. Of the 12 that I have, “Milk and Scissors” is solid, albeit not my favourite. It could be as high as seven or as low as nine depending on my mood. Let’s split the difference and go with eighth, with the proviso I might change my mind later. I’m whimsical like that.

Ratings: 3 stars

Sometimes you just feel an instant connection with a band, and so it was when I first heard the Handsome Family, and most every time since.  “Milk and Scissors” is one of those times; an album filled with haunting vocals and dark and troubling imagery that is not for the faint of heart.

This is only the Handsome Family’s second album but their signature sound is already starting to come into focus; ghostly, lilting melodies that snake their way mysteriously through songs like a river winding its way through a deep forest.

This album is the last to feature the band’s third full member – drummer Mike Werner – but the Handsome Family are principally the husband and wife team of Brett and Rennie Sparks.

Brett is a gifted musician on multiple instruments who writes the music. His ghostly vocals range from the urgent lover heard calling across a lake at night, to the ethereal and tormented voice of a lost soul that drowned in it. He tends to sing lower in his register, and the effect makes everything feel just a bit more…creepy. His natural talent for phrasing adds extra gravitas to the narratives.

The lyrics are a star of this show, and those are all written by Rennie Sparks. While I love a good instrumental as much as the next guy there is no denying I am a sucker for a well-turned phrase and a good story, and Rennie is the mistress of both.

As with any good tale, these songs have multiple layers. The tortured exploration of mental illness on the opening track, “Lake Geneva” is layered with the dread of existential angst of a hero of modern science exploring the mysteries of the world:

“Albert Einstein trembled when he was that time was water

Seeping through the rafters to put out this burning world.”

After all, if Einstein’s nerve fails in the face of the world’s secrets, what chance do the rest of us have? It is delightfully fun spine-shivering stuff.

On “Drunk by Noon” we catch the desperate and impotent energy of the addict:

“Sometimes I flap my arms like a hummingbird

   just to remind myself I’ll never fly

Sometimes I burn my arms with cigarettes

   just to pretend I won’t scream when I die.”

At least that’s what I take from this song; Rennie Sparks’ lyrics are so thick and rich they stretch your mind in a lot of directions. That’s the joy – and terror – of them.

The album also features songs about historical figures from early America. “Emily Shore 1819-1839” explores the story of a woman who documented her agonizing death from tuberculosis (consumption at the time) in a journal. “Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear” imagines what Earhart’s last thoughts might have been as her plane went down.

The album isn’t all folk. There are also occasional rock elements, mostly in the form of heavy reverb electric guitars. Although not as heavily grunge-influenced as the band’s first album “Odessa” they are worth noting, and add a rawness to songs like “Winnebago Skeletons.”  Despite this, it is clear that the band has a solid grounding in very traditional folk music forms, finding a way to explore those forms (here and on the many brilliant albums that follow) in a way that is both timeless and compelling.

Even when the Handsome Family is being derivative (as they are on “#1 Country Song”) they are doing it deliberately. The song may be a very basic country song about not getting the girl of your dreams, but the title makes it clear that they have their tongue planted firmly in their cheeks. The Handsome Family could make commercial pulp country music, they just choose not to do so. While this decision has likely not led them to riches, we – their listeners – are definitely the richer for it.

Best tracks: Lake Geneva, Drunk By Noon, Emily Shore 1819-1839, Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear

CD Odyssey Disc 942: Soundtrack

I meant to write this review last night but after a long and late night at the office I was knackered and opted instead for a couple TV shows and bed. Fortunately, I love this record so an extra day with it was no sacrifice.

Disc 942 is….True Detective Soundtrack

Artist: Various Artists, but a lot of Lera Lynn

Year of Release: 2015

What’s up with the Cover? It looks like the promotional poster for Season Two of True Detective. From left to right we have: a crooked cop, a mobster trying to go legit, an angry cop and a cop with PTSD. It’s not a happy show.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila and I loved the show and the music it featured was always great. By happy accident while looking for someone to see in Nashville, I discovered that Lera Lynn was the mysterious singer in the background of the bar seasons in Season Two. From there it was a simple matter of looking for the soundtrack, which (happily) features music from both seasons.

How It Stacks Up:  I have a lot of soundtracks. I had originally finished reviewing them back at Disc 479, but had forgotten there were a bunch of albums that qualify as soundtracks that I file with the artist that did them. Since I’m now up the 31 soundtracks total, it is probably time to revisit the list. Take a deep breath, because it is long. You’ll note that “True Detective” lands impressively at number four.

1.  The Harder They Come: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 371)
2. Saturday Night Fever: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 392)
3. Hedwig and the Angry Inch: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 225).
4. True Detective: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
5. The Matrix:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 291)
6. Magnolia:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 181)
7. Crooklyn:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 75)
8. Swingers:  4 stars (reviewed at Disc 12)
9. A Kind of Magic: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 749)
10. Flash Gordon: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 659)
11. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 681)
12. Into the Wild:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 260)
13. Pulp Fiction:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 102)
14. Elizabethtown:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 33)
15. Highway 61:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 230)
16. O Brother Where Art Thou:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 386)
17. Buffy The Vampire Slayer:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 216)
18. Reservoir Dogs:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 116)
19. Jackie Brown:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 30)
20. Transamerica:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 402)
21. Les Miserables:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 111)
22. Big Night:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 215)
23. The Warriors:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 479)
24. James Bond:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 103)
25. One From the Heart: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 935)
26. About a Boy:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 252)
27. Chess:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 156)
28. Honeymoon in Vegas:  2 stars (reviewed at Disc 17 and then sold)
29. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat:  1 star (reviewed at Disc 284)
30. Moulin Rouge:  1 star (reviewed at Disc 151)
31. Natural Born Killers:  0 stars (reviewed at Disc 302)

Ratings: 4 stars

Sometimes a soundtrack perfectly captures the feel of the film or show it is meant to accompany. Other times, it is just a great collection of songs. The “True Detective” soundtrack manages to do both.

If you don’t know, “True Detective” is a disturbing crime serial, featuring damaged characters (mostly cops) trying to redeem themselves by stopping criminals even worse. While the first season is superior, both are worth your time and will leave you contemplating the baseness of humanity and the darker secrets of the universe; those secrets that reveal themselves only in fragments, lest they threaten your sanity when encountered whole. Yeah, it’s one of those kinds of shows.

A show like that needs music that sets just the right mood, and famed producer T. Bone Burnett delivers. This soundtrack is actually songs from the first two seasons, shuffled together imperfectly like a deck of cards at a poker table. The shuffling could have taken away from the narrative of the show, but instead the song order creates a new musical narrative that is both evocative of the show, and also casts a spell of its own.

The show manages to find two of the most brooding tracks for each season’s opening credits: the Handsome Family’s “Far From Any Road” (Season 1) and Leonard Cohen’s “Nevermind” (Season 2). The first song is some sort of drug-addled country, with a deep, mysterious vocal and echoes of mariachi bands gone wrong. I don’t know anything else by the Handsome Family, and frankly, this song makes me a bit nervous to delve any deeper. I probably will though.

Cohen’s “Nevermind” has a funky groove and Cohen is at his apocalyptic best as he speaks of all the people who get away with it, whether “it” is love or murder, or some terrible combination of the two.

For all the greatness of these two “title” tracks, the glue that holds this album together is alt-country chanteuse Lera Lynn.

“True Detective” is how I discovered Lera Lynn. Her mournful and lounge-tinged voice sounds like the voice of a ghost here, with T. Bone Burnett turning up the stark echo dial to 11 to maximize the effect of her vocal. Each of her five songs sends a shiver down your spine, leaving you cold and alone with fell thoughts of dark deeds done and the secrets that follow.

Lynn is an accomplished songwriter on her own, and here she teams up with T. Bone and Roseanne Cash. The result is a selection of restless mournful songs that wrap you in loss and regret. On “Lately”, when Lynn sings:

“Lately I'm not feeling like myself

When I look into the glass, I see someone else

I hardly recognize this face I wear

When I stare into her eyes, I see no one there

Lately I'm not feeling like myself”

You can feel the edge of madness creeping in – or is it just grief? The line blurs here as it does throughout the record. Later on “It Only Takes One Shot” she sings of a woman spurned, wrapped in imagery of guns and murder and fell conviction.

As if this record didn’t have enough creepy mood music, we are treated to two longstanding masters: Nick Cave (with Warren Ellis) and Bonnie Prince Billy. Cave and Ellis cover the Gatlin Brothers’ “All the Gold in California” and thoroughly twist it from country anthem to some kind of cultist chant. Bonnie Prince Billy’s “Intentional Injury” is a quiet internalization of the same order.

The record is so good that the Bob Dylan track (“Rocks and Gravel”) is good, but more of an afterthought.

In a way having all these artists contributing their best feels a bit like cheating, and that’s at least one reason I couldn’t give this record a perfect score. It came damn close, though.

Best tracks: All the Lera Lynn tracks (The Only Thing Worth Fighting For, Lately, My Least Favorite Life, A Church in Ruins and It Only Takes One Shot), Nevermind by Leonard Cohen, All the Gold in California by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Far From Any Road by The Handsome Family, Intentional Injury by Bonnie Prince Billy.