Town and Country - It All Has to Do With It
(Thrill Jockey)
Listening to Town and Country is less like hearing a band, than hearing a chorus of instruments. Though
they are instrumental, the way the individual members play together is more like tricky singers. Rather than
combine, build and blend, they weave and intertwine. At times the music can be folksy and whimsical,
deliberate and sad or just kind of odd and off-kilter. However, apparently not content to make music to be
enjoyed, each track is sabotaged by arty form experiments. Which is really too bad, given how good
individual portions of these songs are.
"Hindenburg," the opening track, starts off with acoustic bass and guitar, bells and what I swear is a violin,
though one is not listed on the insert. I was quickly caught up in the song, which went through some unusual
turns as playful melodic parts were juxtaposed against more sombre, rumbles. However, the song
eventually devolves into a kind of minimalist post-rock improv centered around instruments like
harmoniums. No groove, just a lot of plinking amongst the drone. Does this represent how the song's
namesake burnt itself out?
"Hat Versus Hand" picks up that directionless drone and turns it into a metronomic dirge of accordion, bass
and piano. It becomes hypnotic in its paced deliberateness. However, not even the bells at the five-minute
mark can sustain the song over the course of its nine-minute length. By the time things pick up, around the
seven-minute point, its too little, too late.
"That Old Feeling" is perhaps the most straightforward track. It has a kind of Gastr Del Sol guitar-plucking
wierdness to it, like the most bizarre bluegrass you've ever heard. Yet, like "Hat Versus Hand," or, really,
any part of any song on this record, it would have worked much better in an abbreviated form. Compressed
down to the 3-5 minute range, it could have worked really well. But there is just not enough going on in the
song--not enough ingenuity, not enough heart, not enough anything--to justify its 15 minute length.
None of this music is really bad, per se. I mean, you are not going to start screaming or anything. It is
frequently kind of interesting. However, I don't imagine this is anything that I am going to be reaching for to
listen to again anytime soon.
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