The Silver Jews: 'Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea'

Giddy-up! The Silver Jews are back with their sixth album – another countrified journey through the twisted, compelling lyrics of David Berman. Unfortunately this time, the music isn’t as strong as the storytelling deserves.

Berman is the only constant member of Nashville band ‘The Joos’. Formed alongside Pavement in the late 80s and sometimes featuring Stephen Malkmus’ fractured guitar (but not here), they’ve specialised in the kind of lo-fi alternative country that can all too easily sneak under the radar. Lyrically at least, this is undeserved. Berman’s way with words is on a par with The Mountain Goat’s John Darnielle – he weaves strange urban tales of the Midwest, aiming to leave you with a snippet of folk wisdom, “…a fable, a proverb or an epigram…”.

So, on ‘My Pillow Is The Threshold’, we get “I take decaf coffee, Two sugars and one cream, I don’t see the use in staying up just to watch TV… Because the pillow that I dream on, is the threshold of a kingdom, is the threshold of a world where I’m with you.”

On 'San Francisco B.C.', we get, in the style of an epic American poem, some great imagery set to a story of love, death, crap jobs and fighting. “Gene took off his hat and I noticed his hair, It was neatly trimmed but a patch was bare, I knew it wasn’t new wave, it was human error.” (NB: works better with a drawl).

Musically, the experience involves listening out for the next killer couplet whilst enduring dull and unmemorable strumming. Sure, there are some sparks of life that appear from time to time. ‘Open Field’ has a sweet organ motif and backing from Berman’s wife Cassie, who also wakes 'Party Barge' up with the hook “send us your co-ordinates, I’ll send a St Bernard”. ‘Strange Victory Strange Defeat’ sounds oddly like British Sea Power stepped into the recording studio half way through, but it isn’t enough to make a complete record.

Released on 9th June 2008 by Drag City.