I've always been a sucker for the Silver Jews' more accessible, more countryish songs. Some of my favorites are "Tennessee," "How to Rent A Room," "Black and Brown Blues," and "Random Rules." Well, this new album sounds like it was made just for me. It's so accessible that David Berman has even provided the chords for each of the songs, including a little chart showing where to put your fingers on the guitar neck, so you can play along with them if you'd like. Cassie Berman is now a full-fledged member of the band, so those who don't like hearing a girl singing with the Silver Jews will have to either get over it or move on. I've always thought that her sweet voice provides the perfect counterpoint to Berman's gravelly baritone. And her bass playing blends right in. After only three listens, "Suffering Jukebox" is an early favorite. It is classic Berman: a sincere ode to a jukebox that is ignored and neglected. And "Strange Victory, Strange Defeat" begins with the kind of couplet only Berman could write: "Squirrels imported from Connecticut just in time for fall/How much fun is a lot more fun? Not much fun at all." There is a long story-song called "San Francisco B.C." that may at first appear to be following in the footseps of "The Farmer's Hotel," but whereas the other song was slow-moving with impenetrable lyrics, this one is built around a peppy country riff and tells a funny story in which a bad haircut figures prominently. ("It was neatly trimmed but a patch was bare/I knew it wasn't new wave, it was human error.") I agree with the first reviewer that this is the Jews' most optimistic album yet. It has a lot in common with previous songs like "Animal Shapes" and "I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You" and very little in common with songs like "K-Hole" and "There Is A Place." Berman seems to have gotten past the darkness that dominated the previous album, "Tanglewood Numbers." Even when he sings about addiction (I think), he wraps it in candy metaphors: "Living in a candy jail with peppermint bars/Peanut brittle bunk beds and marshmallow walls." As always, there is plenty of great wordplay, and as never before, there is a forward-thinking perspective, summed up perfectly in the final song, "We Could Be Looking for the Same Thing." The title says it all, really. This may be the Jews' best album yet.
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