Sold Date: March 19, 2018
Start Date: November 20, 2015
Final Price: $16.99 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 76834
Buyer Feedback: 0

Howdy and welcome to my store! VINYL VERSION comes with download code. Brett and Rennie Sparks release a new album and suddenly the World is a better place. I’m the first to acknowledge that the Handsome Family are an acquired taste and, no matter what I say about this album, the majority of music fans (my wife included) will not like the music on offer. But, to those of us who do ‘get it,’ we will sit mesmerized by the dark and often weird tales of caterpillars , immortal jellyfish, flies and migrating wildebeest. The sound that the Handsome Family creates is often (lazily in my opinion) described as ‘Southern Gothic,’ but when you listen to this album over and over again (which I recommend) you will hear elements of Psychedelia, Traditional Folk, Indie guitar solos (of the highest order) and, more importantly, lyrics that are a mixture of the Beatles and Shakespeare in influence. It’s pointless to try and dissect a song like Eels, just so I can tell you what a beautiful love song it is, because the title is going to put you off anyway if you’re not already a fan. But, if you aren’t, you are seriously missing out! Owls is a delightful Country song, sung in a baritone voice so deep you can hear an echo in Brett’s throat, about 20-foot-tall Owls that steal his pills but end up making his ‘house a home.’ The harmonies on Woodpecker are simply glorious. What sounds suspiciously like a ukulele is of Claptonian standards, and the song itself is as left-field as I’m ever going to hear, but I love it dearly. It doesn’t take Einstein to work out that the songs on WILDERNESS aren’t to be taken too literally; but every now and again we all need a little bit of goofiness in our lives, don’t we? Well, I do, and the Handsome Family more than fill my quota every couple of years. Enter the dark forest of The Handsome Family and let the beautiful branches surround you. Wild animals, tall tales, and dark stories from American history populate the lyrics of “Wilderness”. In lyricist Rennie Sparks’ hands the wonders of nature are intertwined with true stories of Stephen Foster’s death in a Bowery flophouse, General Custer’s shiny boots as he lay dead on a Montana prairie, & the capture of Mary Sweeney, the Wisconsin Window Smasher of 1896. There are tall tales of the octopus’s hypnotic sea-dance, the frenzied mayhem of a town afflicted by a golden lizard’s bite, & an enormous mansion full of screeching owls. Appalachian holler, psychedelic rock, tin pan alley, & medieval ballads continue to inform The Handsome Family’s unique brand of Americana, while an affinity for parlor ballads & clawhammer banjo has crept in with Wilderness. This is haunting music in the most wonderful way–brilliant, emotionally-charged and completely unique. Record Condition: This record is brand new and unplayed! Check out my other acutions and save on shipping! Checkout my other auctions for lots more records and CDs. Only $2 shipping to add any other record in the USA! Win more then one item and save on shipping (only $2 for each additional LP in the USA!).

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