Milk And Scissors - Handsome Family

Twilight - Handsome Family

When I got a hold of this album I didn't know what to expect, having read a review that basically described it as the bees knees, I had to give it a go. I had a completely different view in my head of how the band would sound. For some reason I imagined a macabre version of Townes Van Zandt instead the vocalist goes for a kermety frog version of Nick Cave, rather than sounding haunting he seems a bit bored. Like Depeche Mode in a library. The pace of the music is exceptionally slow, lyrically the words are very good but the singer seems to have such a dreary unenthusiastic style of singing that it really doesn't work for me. The more countryish songs like "Cold, Cold, ...

Twilight - Handsome Family

When I got a hold of this album I didn't know what to expect, having read a review that basically described it as the bees knees, I had to give it a go. I had a completely different view in my head of how the band would sound. For some reason I imagined a macabre version of Townes Van Zandt instead the vocalist goes for a kermety frog version of Nick Cave, rather than sounding haunting he seems a bit bored. Like Depeche Mode in a library. The pace of the music is exceptionally slow, lyrically the words are very good but the singer seems to have such a dreary unenthusiastic style of singing that it really doesn't work for me. The more countryish songs like "Cold, Cold, ...

Through The Trees - Handsome Family

these sad and funny stories. An exception is "My Ghost" that hints of real mental disturbance from amore personal point of view. Once you see The Handsome Family live you quickly pick up on the dry humour that pervades everything they do but this is not a comedy duo. Listen to the sad lament of "The Giant Of Illinois" the real-life story of Americas tallest man and hear the moments as they produce beauty from the tale of his passing from this world - making death into a transformation where 'the sky was a woman's arms'. "Weightless Again" starts off as a lament for the plight of the American Indians and covers suicide and ...

Through The Trees - Handsome Family

these sad and funny stories. An exception is "My Ghost" that hints of real mental disturbance from amore personal point of view. Once you see The Handsome Family live you quickly pick up on the dry humour that pervades everything they do but this is not a comedy duo. Listen to the sad lament of "The Giant Of Illinois" the real-life story of Americas tallest man and hear the moments as they produce beauty from the tale of his passing from this world - making death into a transformation where 'the sky was a woman's arms'. "Weightless Again" starts off as a lament for the plight of the American Indians and covers suicide and ...

Through The Trees - Handsome Family

of early country-inspired music and twisted lyrics, all presented with a deceptive simplicity. Comparisons have been made to the Carter Family, the Louvin Brothers and Hank Williams, although the Handsome Family are by no means derivative copies. Indeed, there are many contemporary influences and elements to the music, not least the drum machine used throughout this album, which inspired the epithet ‘Countronica’. Imagery ranges from the urban (fire escapes, el trains, fibreglass castles) to the rural (not prettified nature but an environment where new green shoots, plump blackberries and silver forests are counterbalanced by horses’ skulls, ...

Through The Trees - Handsome Family

of early country-inspired music and twisted lyrics, all presented with a deceptive simplicity. Comparisons have been made to the Carter Family, the Louvin Brothers and Hank Williams, although the Handsome Family are by no means derivative copies. Indeed, there are many contemporary influences and elements to the music, not least the drum machine used throughout this album, which inspired the epithet ‘Countronica’. Imagery ranges from the urban (fire escapes, el trains, fibreglass castles) to the rural (not prettified nature but an environment where new green shoots, plump blackberries and silver forests are counterbalanced by horses’ skulls, ...