Aw C'mon/No You C'mon [CD]

OK, so neither of Lambchop's new long players evoke the same kind of magic as the lush country soul of "Nixon" and "What Another Man Spills" or the sparse melancholy of "Is A Woman" but given time they reveal themselves as fine albums in their own right. It just takes time and a bit of effort, as with all Lambchop music!

Of the two, I'd say "Aw C'mon" is the stronger album- gorgeous tunes all over the shop, my personal favourites being "Something's Going On", "I Haven't Heard A Word I've Said", "Nothing But A Blur From A Bullet Train" and the amazing "Steve McQueen". Melancholy masterpieces, each and every one.

Other highlights include the faltering lounge jazz of "Women Help To Create The Kind Of Men They Despise" and the damn funky "I Hate Candy".

"No You C'mon" is a lighter affair than the fairly bleak "Aw C'mon"- the tunes are looser on the whole, the lyrics slightly more humorous and heck- even a bit of heavily distorted guitar creeps into a song or two ("Nothing Adventurous Please" being the main example of this- it rocks hard! Track 10, "The Gusher" even cobs the riff from the Black Sabbath standard "Paranoid"!).

At the mellower end of the spectrum we get gems like "There's Still Time" and "The Problem".

It seems a lot of fuss has been made over the inclusion of instrumental material on the albums, which I can't really understand. Admittedly, some of these tunes veer a little too closely to 'elevator music' or whatever you want to call it, but on closer inspection the likes of "The Lone Official" and "Sunrise" reveal themselves as great pieces of music.

The key to enjoying these albums is to not be overwhelmed by the huge amount of material on offer- like I said, it takes a bit of time to fully appreciate everything here! Get used to one disc at a time, whatever it takes but please don't write them off as disappointing so soon- they're a pair of gems!

Every bit as good as all their other albums, but in a different way which, if you love Lambchop because of either Nixon or Is A Woman, might take a number of listens to appreciate. I love both the aforementioned, but I also love all their earlier stuff (I Hope You're Sitting Down, How I Quit Smoking, Hank, Thriller, What Another Man Spills, (don't miss Vic Chesnutt collaboration Salesman & Bernadette)). Even Wagner's Morcheeba collaboration (on their "Charango") is exquisite.

Don't be put off. As ever, a little effort with Lambchop will reap rich rewards. Just listen to Neihaus's sweet sweet pedal steel on Sunrise, if you think instrumentals don't work! As ever, Kurt Wagner is miles ahead of everyone, including us poor listeners, who need to Listen (!) to catch up.

I first encountered Lambchop, as is the case with many listeners, some time shortly after the release of the great Nixon album. Being a fan of both Country and soul/funk fan in general, and a huge Curtis Mayfield fan in particular, the recordings on this album totally astounded me. I was lucky enough to see Kurt Wagner play a solo acoustic set about six months or so before "Is A Woman" came out. It was then I realised that there were more sides to Lambchop than I had heard on Nixon. When "Is A Woman" finally came out I didn't know what to make of it at first. I loved certain songs but it took me quite a few listens before I warmed to it as an album but eventually I began to really love it and even went to see Lambchop when they toured the album with the full band.

"Aw Come On!/No You Come On!" was a similar experience with me. Initially I found the two albums very pleasant but didn't feel the compulsion to play the albums again and again. Then I heard Lambchop were doing a really cool gig in Edinburgh. At some point in the recent past they had been commisioned to write a film score for F.W. Murnau's silent masterpiece "Sunrise", and there was going to be a screening of a restored version of the film with Lambchop providing a live score. As I really liked the film, was well disposed to Lambchop, and the whole concept of a live film score really appealed to me, I thought I'd give it a go. It was a revelation. I'd twigged that the instrumental "Sunrise" would be involved somehow but I hadn't realised that "Aw Come On..." was in a large part made up from songs prepared for this project, I'd for some reason presumed that the soundtrack would be entirely instrumental. I was pleasantly suprised to hear tracks like "Nothing Adventerous Please"(which was really rocking live)and "The Gusher" providing an aural backdrop to the beautifully composed images on the screen.

Since then "Aw Come on!/No you Come on!" has clocked a respectable amount of listens and has become a bit of a favourite. It really does have a wealth of top tunes on it. Low Ambition, with it's great piano melody, ridiculously atmospheric layered guitars and neatly oblique lyrics. "Shang a Dang Dang" is ridiculously catchy and infectious despite the fact you can't hear what Kurt is singing. My best guess is "shang a dang dang, I'm a two-tone duck, yeah!". "Nothing But A Blur From A Bullet Train" is a great song with a really great string arrangement and paints a beautiful picture, only complaint is the vocals could be higher in the mix particularly as the lyrics are so good.

The quality control applied to these cd appears to have been very high, as there are remarkable few tracks that aren't at least approaching excellence, no mean feat on a double album. Even the preponderance of Instrumentals which initially just washed over me, have really begun to grow on me. "Sunrise" is a great piece of music and it's a really great performance, particularly the pedal steel. "The Lone Official" is pretty damn good too, particular the rythme guitar intro. It's just a shame that the film "Sunrise" hasn't been realised on Dvd with Lambchops soundtrack accompanying it. Perhaps amazon could do an exclusive version with 5.1 dolby soundtrack.