Dirty Projectors - Slaves' Graves & Ballads
(Western Vinyl)
David Longstreth, singer/songwriter/mastermind of The Dirty Projectors, loves the orchestra. With his new album Slaves' Graves & Ballads, he sets out to use sounds from the Neoclassical-era symphony in the same space as some spare and eccentric indie folk songs and in doing so formed the group dubbed The First Orchestral Society for the Preservation of the Orchestra. The group is a small chamber ensemble organized and conducted by Longstreth that backs him for the first half of the album, a series of songs that, with its lush orchestral arrangements and idiosyncratic singing owes far more to Tilt-era Scott Walker than anything you might hear in The Firebird Suite. However, unlike Walker's terror and unrest, Longsterth's intentions are never quite clear.
While Longstreth's pretentious press writer will claim that other current "orchestral pop' musicians use orchestral instruments "superficially," ("Maybe the cello can lend that Low song a facile eeriness," "Maybe the string parts on that Beck album can infuse otherwise boring material with false regalia," etc.) the truth is that there is no correct usage of these instruments unless you're interested in preserving the constraints that an institution founded and thriving on European imperialism like the symphony orchestra suggests. Even today the orchestra in our society is basically a conduit for the wealthy to engage in their vague idea of "culture," i.e. European culture. I'm not sure what the motivation of or point behind attacking pop music's use of string instruments is, but to suggest that an instrument has a specific purpose or intended user (i.e. the "learned expert" composer) it must adhere to is foolish and elitist.
If you can ignore all the needlessly defensive and condescending rhetoric that surrounds the release of this CD, then in reality you'll find that Longstreth's arrangements are actually quite competent and lend the songs a striking quality they wouldn't have otherwise. Nevertheless, the writing that is supposedly "utilizing the classical instruments for their individual timbres and peculiarities" isn't representative of anything you couldn't learn in a first-year orchestration class. It's surprising and somewhat jarring to hear sounds normally reserved only for the orchestra on an indie folk album, and Longstreth's ensemble does it well. There are plenty of striking moments in Slaves' Graves, not the least of which is the conclusion of "(Throw On) The Hazard Lights" when the music suddenly becomes distorted, an Andy Kaufmann-esque moment where, at first, it's unclear whether the stereo is broken or if the sound is intended. It mirrors the words of uncertainty and defeat ("It's all over before it began") very well, and it's easily one of the standout tracks.
The Ballads portion of the disc finds Longstreth playing without his orchestra, his songs stripped down to little more than voice and acoustic guitar. These more intimate tracks sound every bit as confident as the "orchestral" songs and still, even with the added candidness, leave me completely disinterested. He has a remarkably strong voice but is constantly undone by his incessant warbling, giving each song a sense of feigned and engineered "emotion" rather than true passion. Longstreth's music is just like Matthew Barney's Cremaster films. It's beautiful and dazzling but all of that activity only serves to distract us from the fact that underneath the surface what we're seeing isn't particularly interesting or revolutionary. Longstreth shields himself with his obviously affected singing style and because of it fails to make any real connection.
Ultimately, the songs of Slaves' Graves & Ballads come off sounding empty and too self-conscious to be as emotionally affecting as Longstreth might suggest with his grand and sweeping gestures. The album is engaging as a peculiarity and commendable for its imagination and accomplished musicianship but offers little more beyond. Slaves' Graves provides fertile ground for some amazing music-making but as of yet offers little more than an ad hoc chamber ensemble, a lot of cryptic and contrived singing, and one of the most irritating press sheets I've ever seen.
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