Electric Fetus

Reviews:

There is something wispy—almost ethereal—about the band Lambchop.Their music is mystical and dreamy, and as you listen you often have the feelingthat you’ve heard these sounds somewhere before. Phrases resonate as piano,guitars, drums and horns reverberate, yet the accumulative sound seems to accentuatethe empty space between the notes more than fill it. Impossible to categorize,Lambchop is easier described by what the group isn’t, rather than whatit is: Lambchop is not a country band (though they hail from Nashville, anda pedal steel guitar often punctuates their work), not a soul group (despitethe horn arrangements and frontman Kurt Wagner’s occasional falsetto),nor a rock outfit (rumored to have twelve, thirteen, fourteen members), Lambchopis its own animal.

Is a Woman, Lambchop’s sixth album, only adds to the mystery. Surrealistlyrics, like “Fibers from a rope/ In the roughness of your hand you cope/With cuddles and the gentle revolution” (“The Daily Growl”) givelittle clue as to subject matter. Yet Wagner’s spoken-sung delivery setsa mood—sometimes dark, occasionally breezy—that in turn provides ahazy outline for the musicians to further define. As the broken grill and blackeye (and matching languorous tempo) of “The New Cobweb Summer” hintat the inevitable disappointment of the lazy, early days of summer, a handfulof themes—all involving some combination of love, death and boredom—arecobbled together with magnificently rendered defeatist images of stumbling postmen,wilting flowers, and wobbling tables. For patient listeners, Is a Womanis a study in lush eclecticism, well worth decoding if you have the time.