Austinist Album Review: Silver Jews Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

For those unfamiliar with Silver Jews and the songwriting and craft of David Berman, this is as good of a time to jump in as any. Several important names in indie rock have had a hand in crafting the Jews’ music over the years, like Stephen Malkmus (co-founder) and Will Oldham, as well as folks from bands like Lambchop and Rites of Spring. The songs within Lookout Mountain are less focused on guitar than some of the band’s previous tracks (perhaps due to the fact that Malkmus is missing from the record), but Berman makes up for it by stepping up the storytelling. He sings about a sad jukebox, an unstoppable party barge and the exploits of a bluegrass drummer named Aloyisius, and he does it all in a very low-pitched, deflated, Johnny Cash-meets-Bill Callahan kind of way. It might be a little much to handle for some.

Berman leans in closer to the mic with a country drawl and twang than he did before, and it agrees with him. Berman’s voice and lyrics take center stage, even above the occasional piano, sound bite and party barge sound effects. He does, however, leave room for a harmony or two with his wife, Cassie. Her vocals on “Suffering Jukebox” along with the organ drag the song that extra mile making a truly downtrodden honky tonk tune all while Berman keeps on keepin’ on with the witty wordplay like “you got Tennessee tendencies and chemical dependencies.” In one of his more wordy numbers “San Francisco B.C.” he goes almost spoken word on this story about a girl who snubs a guy for another who “moves a lot of concrete on the QVC” and spews forth pearls of wisdom such as “romance is the douche of the bourgeoisie.” One of the songs from Lookout Mountain that’s a little harder to pull from your skull is “My Pillow Is the Threshold” where Berman sings somberly about wanting to go back to sleep so he can pick back up in a fantasy that he can control. Certain songs are a little like an oubliette and should be taken in moderation.

It’s very clear here that the lyrics drive the songs and not the other way around. You don’t just come up with lines like “first life takes time then time takes life/ now the next move’s up to me” when you’re trying to fill the space between the E chord and the C.

Silver Jews [MySpace] [Official]