Califone All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (Dead Oceans)
4/5
By: Liane Escorza
Apparently, part of the ‘goodness’ of an orange gets lost when you peel it. Like, it’s not fresh anymore. Like it’s somehow spoilt. And the same applies to fashion. Once someone wears an accessory in a completely random way that has never been worn as such before, it immediately becomes obsolete. I dare say, the same goes for music: this whole ‘album as screenplay-for-a-film’ concept is being slightly overdone now. It’s starting to rot.
Califone, a bluesy, experimental folk band from Chicago formed by multi-instrumentalists on guitar, piano, optigan, stylophone, marimba, ukulele, cello, bass clarinet and whatnot, have embraced this concept, yet I cannot stop thinking that this idea is a forced splurge for attention. I’d say the music itself without a visual purpose should suffice. Because here, it does.
In fact, this positively shines on its own. It doesn’t need floristries. Califone’s All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is a cinematic journey in itself, an exploration of the senses and the intellect. With songs like the introductory ‘Giving Away The Bride’ or ‘Polish Girls’, minimalism becomes a thrilling pop oddity. The harshness and rawness of ‘Funeral Singers’ calls for whisky remedies and tap-along motions, while ‘Evidence’ and ‘Krill’ are two intimate gifts of harmonic vocabulary.
With or without the accompanying film it’s meant to soundtrack, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is not just an accessory but in itself a whole, timeless outfit of music landscapes.
Artists in this article: Califone
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