Description:
It might be a cliché that musicians only truly reach middle age when they start work on their first country album, but Whiskey Tango Ghosts proves that musical maturity needn't equal artistic stagnation. Consciously inspired by artists such as Lucinda Williams, Gram Parsons, and Emmylou Harris, this is a record that offers a sound some way removed from creator Tanya Donelly's previous outfit, candy grungers Belly. But Donelly's voice has improved with age, and on this warm, immersive collection, she's brought about an impressive change of musical priorities: gone are the moments of technicolour dischord and taste for syrupy sho
It might be a cliché that musicians only truly reach middle age when they start work on their first country album, but Whiskey Tango Ghosts proves that musical maturity needn't equal artistic stagnation. Consciously inspired by artists such as Lucinda Williams, Gram Parsons, and Emmylou Harris, this is a record that offers a sound some way removed from creator Tanya Donelly's previous outfit, candy grungers Belly. But Donelly's voice has improved with age, and on this warm, immersive collection, she's brought about an impressive change of musical priorities: gone are the moments of technicolour dischord and taste for syrupy shoegazer fuzz, replaced by a new clarity that places gentle, unadorned instrumentation and simplicity of form at the centre of the vision. Fans will be relieved that despite this record's vaunted country edge, there's no Garth Brookes haminess: the pedal steel and Nashville guitar, which comes courtesy of Rich Gilbert from Frank Black's The Catholics, is effective in its restraint. Meanwhile, tracks such as "My Life As a Ghost" and hymn-to-abstinence "Golden Mean" work the clever trick of sounding satisfied, but mercifully, never self-satisfied. This is a welcome return. --Louis Pattison
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Manufacturer: 4ad
Release date: 26 July 2004
EAN: 0652637241822 UPC: 652637241822
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