4.5/5: The Handsome Family return with a stellar new album that twists traditional country elements into a deeply moving and often disturbing vision of the modern world.
The Handsome Family's music fits snuggly into the Southern Gothic literary tradition. Like William Faulkner or Flannery O'Connor, they fill their music with characters who weather quiet desperation while somehow continuing to find strength and inspiration in everyday experiences.
On Last Days of Wonder (Carrot Top Records), the seventh full-length album from this New Mexico-based duo, these themes are given a modern twist. Each one of these beautiful, haunting melodies take place in settings that embody American suburban or exurban culture-where deserted airports and smoky bowling alleys are as desolate and dangerous as murky swamps and caves.
The Handsome Family is Brett and Rennie Sparks, a husband and wife team who have long been known for their darkly comedic and deeply philosophical approach to traditional country music.
Rennie writes all of the band's lyrics, in which she frequently achieves a striking balance of the mundane and the miraculous. Human skulls in caves, a man who disappears but leaves his sprinklers on to water his perfectly manicured lawn, and the troubled 19th century physicist Nikola Tesla make up just a few of her subjects. At her best, she creates a portrait of modern life that is at once unsettling and richly human.
Brett then takes these lyrics, unlocks their underlying melodies, and sets them to music. On this album, he seamlessly mixes traditional with non-traditional instruments. In addition to guitar, bass and drums, the listener will be able to pick out mellotron, ukulele, banjo, bowed wine glasses, trombone, and even a Theremin whining on "These Golden Jewels." Brett's baritone voice imbues every track with a sense of introspection and artistry, and gives structure to Rennie's often nonlinear words and ideas.
On Last Days of Wonder, each song is strong and contributes another colorful, twisted vignette to the album's overall narrative arch. "Your Great Journey" opens the record with a jolt and a series of ghosts. Images of hydrogen bombs and automatic sinks that don't recognize the hand-washer are coupled with a sweet twangy shuffle, signaling that the listener is entering a strange and astonishing new world.
In addition, unorthodox love songs such as "Flapping Your Broken Wings" and "Bowling Alley Bar" are undeniably charming and perfectly capture the eccentricity of the emotion they portray.
Last Days of Wonder is The Handsome Family's strongest effort to date. For those who have never experienced the intoxicating, unexpectedly spiritual nature of their music, this album will quickly grab your imagination and change the way you see the world. It is an album overflowing with music unlike any you will hear this year-in any genre.
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