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Silver Jews
Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
Drag City
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Article
written by James S
Jun 4, 2008.
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| Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea |
“What’s with all the handsome grandsons in these rock band magazines? And what have they done with the fat ones, the bald and the goateed?”
With the music press’s thirst for youth and the next big thing, it can be easy to overlook some of the longer standing members of the alt-rock community. Like David Berman for example; Silver Jews main man and author of the droll lyrics above, taken from the glorious Strange Victory, Strange Defeat. If you listen closely to ’Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea’, you can clearly hear the sound of every other record released this year being knocked firmly into a cocked hat.
Long-term Berman fans may not agree however. ‘It’s just too bloody happy’ they will moan but so what. Yes, there is more joy and joie de vivre than you’ve any right to expect from a man who once almost committed suicide but the effects are thoroughly intoxicating.
The writing is better than ever before, with Berman battling “Tennessee tendencies and chemical dependencies” and telling tall tales of characters like “Brick Butterfly…a hardcore gobbler and long-term guzzler of hydrogenated crap”. The album’s pièce de résistance is the six-minute grin-fest of San Francisco B.C. which bears strong comparisons to A Boy Named Sue only ten times more surreal and hilarious. The lyrical highlights are too many to mention but “fist cuisine” just wins out over “sarcastic hair”.
Much of Berman’s new found lust for life seems to be down to wife Cassie, who is rightly promoted from bass player to provider of frequent backing vocals throughout. Her understated tones add colour to the likes of Party Barge, replete with its foghorn and seagull sound effects, and a cover of Maher Shalal Hash Baz’s Open Field, but she shines brightest when given the entire chorus of Suffering Jukebox, a lovely country lament to broken-down technology à la Grandaddy at their peak.
As always, Berman remains a firm believer in the tenet that ‘less is more’ and this latest album, just his sixth in almost 20 years, once again clocks in at less than 35 minutes. They just happen to be the best sub-35 minutes you’ll hear all year though. “Why not see a legend whilst it’s still being made?” he implores on Party Barge. I thoroughly concur, sir.
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