th="71" height="71">Looks At The Birds
Thrill Jockey, 2003
rating: 4/5
reviewer: d
Just the other day I was looking to buy one of those CDs full of bird calls to brush up on my auditory identifying skills, but I accidentally bought Brokeback's Looks At The Birds. What a fool I was! I put the CD in, and instead of hearing Richard Kiley's voice announcing the first from the ABA's list of American species, there was... music! A trifle disappointed, I began trying to identify the instruments that I heard. There were stand up and six string basses. I'm pretty sure that vibes and possibly an organ were also present. There were some jazzy sounding drum bits, but also little clicky noise beats similar to those of Bjork or Mum (yet distinguishably different). Much to my bewilderment, there were even some lines of wordless vocals from Sterelab's late Mary Hansen. As a whole, the semi-suddle guitar doused in tremelo with that six string bass line making the lead made for an Urge Overkillsh (a la Neko Case) blend, which happens to create a definite wound-down mood. The album was pleasant, and it, fortunately, relaxed me to the point where I was grateful to have made the "mistake" of purchasing it! The band, as it would turn out after a bit of research, is a sideproject of Tortoise's Douglas McCombs. This just goes to show you that not ALL of the extraTortal bands that released a CD in January 2003 were a let down!
1. From the Black Current
2. Lupé
3. Name's Winston, Friends Call Me James
4. Everywhere Down Here
5. In the Reeds
6. 50 Guitars
7. The Suspension Bridge at Iguazü Falls
8. The Wind-Up Bird
9. Pearl's Dream
More about: Brokeback
