(Drag City/Spunk/EMI)

One of America’s finest lyricists issues another winner

David Berman pens literate, mournful and hilarious music with his lo-fi Americana collective Silver Jews. The group’s reputation for ragged, garagey country rock can cause them to be somewhat misunderstood, particularly upon playing new album Lookout Mountain Lookout Sea. True, Berman possesses a gruff, low Hazelwood/Cash voice, but the chorus of My Pillow Is The Threshold clearly is more reminiscent of ‘60s French pop, while Open Field is like a more minimalist Friday I’m In Love by The Cure, and the surging San Franciso B.C. has more in common with the primal thump of the Velvet Underground than the dry acoustics of dust-town country. What the album has in spades, is outstanding songwriting and fantastic lyrics – he’s poking fun at scenesters in San Francisco B.C. (“We had sarcastic hair”), while Candy Jail could be an inmate’s most fanciful daydream (“Peanut brittle bunk beds/And marshmallow walls”). The scrawled lyrics, printed here on corporate stationery from various hotels and motels, suggests the musings of an eternal wanderer, channelling his travels into instantly memorable and evocative song-stories. For many years, Berman has been one of the great contemporary singer/songwriters – with this superb record, he’ll hopefully start getting some well-deserved recognition.

****

MATT THROWER

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