Feast Of Wire

I can listen to them and I do quite enjoy them but their songs seem to just, ever so slightly, miss the mark for me. Until this.

The feel is the same as previous albums - a kind of bleak desert scenario on the US/ Mexican border, a land inhabited by vultures and cactii with the occasional weathered cowboy wandering down a deserted street.

The songs, though, as individual works contain a new depth and richness of melody that has always been missing on previous albums. 'Sunken Waltz' is a traditional country song of the highest order. 'Not Even Stevie Nicks' reminds me slightly of Mercury Rev - and that is no bad thing either. With 16 tracks in all, some are links and the album is definitely meant to be listened too in its entirety. Enjoy the latin feel of 'Dub Latina' and the Jonathon Richmanesque 'Attack El Robot, Attack'. Shads of The Handsome Family add to the modern country ambience and the brooding darkness of 'No Doze' wraps up the best Calexico album to date.

Set up the Tequila, turn up the hi fi and enjoy. Modern Country just gets stronger and stronger.

The album is an eclectic mix of lo-fi alt. country, spicey Mexican rythms together with a hint of conventional country music, but always with an added edge!

The sixteen tracks (excluding the three excellent bonus tracks on the limited edition version of the album) move on apace and are without a blemish. Although sounding quite different, I imagine this record as an alternative soundtrack to the Wim Wenders film Paris Texas.

All this after one listen!

This is the first Calexico album I have bought, but having heard a couple of tracks on radio, I decided to go ahead and buy it. It takes in a wide range of styles, from Mexican-infused waltzes to jazz, stopping off at lo-fi country and the sort of unclassifiable stuff you would expect to find on a Beck album. One aspect struck me straight away - the percussion. Just listen to the track "Whipping the Horse's Eyes", which involves a pedal steel and a cello playing a slow melody, but the percussion almost makes it danceable!

Almost half of the tracks are instrumentals, some of a minute or less in duration, which gives a soundtrack-like feel to the album, but it holds together better than most soundtrack albums.