Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea
Drag City/Spunk
By Brooke Salisbury
Silver Jews are awesome in the same way as the Mountain Goats. Their music isn't worlds apart but the bond exists more within the rugged, loose and imperfect process of writing and recording each band's dusty tunes. The main difference between the two is the 'Goats astounding output of music, built upon the idea of quantity wherein quality is understood to be second hand. Silver Jews albums are far more irregular, though still thrown together as though production is urgent and untucked ala John Darnielle.
On Silver Jews sixth studio effort, though, something is different. Perhaps it's the lack of message we've come to expect from Tennessee's finest. Where The Natural Bridge gave us ‘Lessons in How To Rent A Room' and Tanglewood Numbers asked ‘How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down?', Lookout Mountain... merely sketches a fuzzy picture of David Berman and co drinking whiskey on a Nashville veranda, winding down and looking back. The same jagged keys and weary growl make for pleasant listening, while occasionally jaunty tunes take the band back to their early days. As always it's a star-studded affair with Stephen Malkmus' lonesome, epic guitar runs littered over the reverb laden record.
And at the end of the day, you turn to Silver Jews for the prose - baldly funny, unexpected and full to the brim with concrete images and ramshackle absurdity.
Berman's history is a story in itself, though you don't need a preface to enjoy the countrified sounds of the veteran rockers. Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea isn't the album of their career, but it really doesn't matter. Perfection is one thing Berman rarely strives for and the joy of the band is in the exact opposite.