Search - Smog :: Red Apple Falls

Hypnotic...wicked...witty...musically & lyrically devestatin

Susan Doran | Portland, ME United States | 01/07/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Only gave 4 stars because this album isn't for everyone, and a 5-star review makes people go out and buy stuff. In this case if a lot of people did that, they'd be disappointed and would post negative reviews here.



I gave this album to an intelligent musician with great taste, and he said he couldn't get through it because it's too slow. So again, it's not for everyone. With that said, when this album first came out in 1997/8 I turned several other people onto it and it stayed in rotation in all of our collections for months and months.



It's a minimalist album, and it does unfold at Bill's own pace. But holy schmidt, pretty much every time you listen to it layers upon layers show themselves, and you're slack-jawed. A friend listening to him stammered with respect, "You just...you just can't DO that!"



Best listened to in fall/winter. It's the musical and thematic equivalent to bare branches sillouted against a bleak sky.



And it's a dark as hell album. Lyrically sardonic, self-observing, sad, removed, mildly sadistic, more than mildly self-loathing, resigned, anguished, amused and amusing, charming, engaging, self-deprecating, astonishingly witty, narrative-driven. Musically it's haunting, hypnotic, and quite beautiful. He's brilliant.



For example, the first track, "The Morning Paper," opens for several bars with singular, repetitive, dissonant notes on an accoustic guitar, against a dull low buzzing backdrop, and then Bill's voice, sounding tentative and slightly disoriented, comes in for just a few lines...his character wakes up logily and, not finding compelling reason to fully come to consciousness, capitulates to lethargy to "roll right over/and go to sleep/the evening sun/can be so sweet."



Then--still in the space of maybe 6 lines--introduces the concept of "this thing...Red Apple Falls," seemingly an allegory for the place his emotionally damaged and damaging protagonist had been in, in a complicated relationship where he behaved very badly, and basically now has the reaction of the scorpion in the scorpion and the frog story (when asked why the scorpion has stung the frog who is giving him a ride across a river, since they'll both sink and drown -- i.e., "it's in my nature...I'm a scorpion").



But many other reactions and ripples are revealed throughout the album, its stories, anecdotes, and side trips.



Some people have commented on Bill Callahan's lack of vocal strength or something...I disagree. This is a pretty emotional album. And Bill's voice is an expressive instrument. You won't hear his voice crack or eep out uncertainly or tiredly without it tying into the album's narrative. And often he sings in the monotone of someone still in the aftershock of whatever that trip into Red Apple Falls was all about.



Last note: I like other Smog albums a lot too--but this is my hands-down favorite--and have *not* enjoyed Bill Callahan live, at all, much to my chagrin."

Excellent surprise!!!

Emmanuel | mexico city | 11/09/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"when I first listen smog in a radio station here in mexico city, I was wonder how an entire album would sound, and when I get "red apple falls" randomly I was amazed by the power of the lyrics and the sound itself, I don't now how this band is not that famous yet (and it'll never gonna be for sure, but still it's really worth listening!!!!)"