Lambchop

What Another Man Spills

(Merge 146)

My first reaction to the new Lambchop album is lovely.

And then I think how do they get away with it?

Kurt Wagner's ever expanding orchestra of the absurd (now up to fourteen members, all completely necessary, I am sure) wanks about with bedtime stories concerning desperate losers, dog piss and dead ends and does it in a way that suggests that that is all there is, which is a downer fer shure but told with such gentleness and empathy that you can't help but feel good when they crack a genuine smile. That many of those unreserved moments of bonhomie come on covers is telling, but who cares when you realize that "Give Me Your Love (Love Song)" is a Curtis Mayfield number replete with disco strings and Cooz-o-tron Mark '75 bass?

If you can dislocate your disbelief bonehard enough, you'll be grooving along with 'em. Plus my pal Kadugan maintains that their cover of "I've Been Lonely for So Long" is the perfect couples-skate song for down at the Golden Rollerbowl. Damn. Betcha I'll be down there asking for it next Saturday, in my best old tie, rollerskating backwards and trying to get lucky with the rest of the beautiful losers.

See you there.

--T. Magill