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Album Review

Damon & Naomi
The Sub Pop Years 20:20:20 Records

Article written by Ged M - Oct 7, 2009

Damon & Naomi: The Sub Pop Years

We all liked Galaxie 500 but Damon and Naomi’s solo work is more of an acquired taste; words like "poetic", "ethereal" and "soaring" spring easily to my mind, but equally I admit that some can find it dry and austere. Damon and Naomi shouldn’t have existed after More Sad Hits anyway, as they only planned to release one swansong post-G500 record before pursuing other artistic directions (they’ve run an independent book publishers for the past 20 years while Naomi makes videos and Damon is a published poet).But I'm glad they stuck at it.

This compilation compiles tracks from their four Sub Pop albums. It’s not a best of (so no ‘This Car Climbed Mount Washington’) but it does have a wonderfully representative mix. Their solo material draws on their love of Nick Drake and Sandy Denny plus their introspective intelligence (who else would compose a song called ‘Judah and the Maccabees’ and give it such a swooningly gorgeous chorus?) and is folky, spare, reserved, but heartfelt. Their work with Tokyo band Ghost, and with Ghost’s ace guitarist Michio Kurihara feels more elaborate and psychedelic, including a transcendental version of ‘Song to the Siren’ from the not-live, not-recorded-in-Spain Song to the Siren: Live in San Sebastian album. Damon and Naomi’s work here is soaring and atmospheric, pervaded by a wonderful sense of melancholy and best savoured in a mood of meditation and reflection. Stephin Merritt calls them “probably the quietest rock group in the United States”, which is true, but it just means you can better appreciate their lachrymal arrangements.

Links:
http://www.damonandnaomi.com
http://www.subpop.com/artists/damon_and_naomi
http://www.myspace.com/damonandnaomi