Search - Handsome Family :: Last Days of Wonder

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alexander laurence | Los Angeles, CA | 11/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Handsome Family is very interesting group. They are a husband and wife team who sing murder ballads. I have never seen them play. But I did an interview with them a few years ago. They seemed like a very bitter crowd. If you take a little punk-punk, and throw in a fascination with Nick Cave, and a conversion to Americana, you get to the Handsome Family. When I was talking to them on the phone I felt that I was talking to myself ten years ago. I was really pissed off. I was in training to become a serial killer. I guess that I moved to New York City and joined the rat race. A bunch of good and bad things have happened, and I am all the better for it. If I were still the old me, and time did stop, I would be probably making music like this. But Handsome Family has moved on with this album. There are the same Americana obsessions. Now they have songs about Nicola Tesla. "These Golden Jewels" is like a Tom Waits song. Most of the album is like some southern novel. I was listening to this Ralph Stanley CD recently. Handsome Family is like that except with the references to God. This is a whole album without any murder ballads or even a body count. The Handsome Family has grown up."

More wonder !

zorak | Sydney, Australia. | 07/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I wonder how they do it,I am just glad they keep doing it.That dynamic duo have given us yet another gift,I don't know how they keep doing it, but they keep expressing the inexpressible, that world that lies just out of our reach, but which we glimpse in moments of illumination.The Handsome Family write about our world, they use our words, they use instruments,and the same musical notes that are over the radio all day, but they make it all shine, to paraphrase T.H.White, they are some of what we all are, just drops in the great sunlight sea, but some of those drops sparkle."

Alt-country epics

gonzobrarian | 10/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Indeed, they are nearly perfect. The Family Sparks seem to have found a winning formula for consistently creating very moving, curious, and eerie records. At first listen, the songs are short and simplistic, both lyrically and musically. Careful inspection though, will reveal a musical lotus unfolding from the mud, abandoned shopping carts, chain-link fences, thousand year old trees, and any other piece of imagery conceived not too far from the back-roads. City vs. country is a prevalent theme throughout the album, set to the minutia of the Sparks' observations at any particular second. Whether at strip-malls, busy airports, lonesome diners, or starving in the back-country, this is a snapshot of the landscapes we are passing through on our great journey, ranging from our grand cosmic origins, to the places we need only to keep the momentum going, like the mini-marts and airports. Ultimately, that is the overarching idea here: the aim our great journey is not the goal, but the act itself. The Handsome Family superbly captures this wonder with wide eyes and thoughtful insight.



Typically, the songs tend toward a slow pacing to fully embellish Brett Sparks' deep and welcoming voice. Obviously, this is a band that takes its time and care when making its albums, and rightfully so. That said, I also agree wholeheartedly that a little extra kick, that is, a heavier rock and roll presence, might just be what's needed to increase their listenership. It appears sporadically in the record, especially in the song `All the Time in Airports', and changes the pace well. It's really gravy, though, because The Handsome Family just does everything so well on "Last Days of Wonder". In addition to the other hyped tracks named elsewhere, the standout tracks for me are `Flapping Your Broken Wings', `All the Times in Airports', `Our Blue Sky', and "Somewhere Else to Be'. They're hauntingly good from a really unique band.

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