Singing Bones - 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

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, ...

In The Air - Handsome Family

I didn't realise until I lloked at the dates on the copyright of the songs that this is an anthology of songs culled from his first three albums. But it only took "Wicked Game" from a David Lynch film (Wild At Heart) to launch the him on the international stage. His voice is so variable and remanisant of Roy Orbison's. ...

In The Air - Handsome Family

I didn't realise until I lloked at the dates on the copyright of the songs that this is an anthology of songs culled from his first three albums. But it only took "Wicked Game" from a David Lynch film (Wild At Heart) to launch the him on the international stage. His voice is so variable and remanisant of Roy Orbison's. ...