After hearing six unfailingly incredible albums from the Handsome Family, I was looking forward to Singing Bones as yet another enjoyable collection of songs. Rennie Sparks' ever-imaginative mind is, of course, dead on with the interesting subject matter and her interesting way of stringing words together. Seriously, how many artists are going to write songs about sailing down a bottomless hole in a rusty old bathtub? Did you ever suspect that your 24 hour Wal-Mart is haunted? Rennie concurs and wrote a song about it: "Late, late at night, 24-hour store/ Ghosts fly up the aisles/ Across the shining floor/ Opening and closing automatic doors." There are TWO songs that speculate about the end of the world, one about the possibility of the world ending in ice, the other about it ending in fire. Both of these songs feature one Brett, two Brett, three Brett, four, singing a capella in harmony with himself, impressively so, I might say. I love it so much I don' t know what to do!
The vocals on this album surpass all of the Handsome Family's previous efforts. Rennie joins in more often, refining the stronger tracks with gentle, floating harmonies. Prime examples are "The Forgotten Lake" and "Whitehaven," two delicious tracks with haunted fairy tale imagery.
Singing Bones casts a spell - it's a walk through a mythical forest filled with foggy mysteries and intriguing supernatural events. So you must listen immediately and quit griping about how nobody makes good music anymore.
1. The Forgotten Lake
2. Gail With the Golden Hair
3. 24-Hour Store
4. The Bottomless Hole
5. Far from Any Road
6. If the World Should End in Fire
7. A Shadow Underneath
8. Dry Bones
9. Fallen Peaches
10. Whitehaven
11. Sleepy
12. The Song of a Hundred Toads
13. If the World Should End in Ice