|
Though the Thrift Store Cowboys’ third studio album was released a while ago, I’m just now getting it reviewed - because I refused to take the thing out of my CD player. When the copy of Lay Low While Crawling or Creeping first fell into my hands I slotted it into the first spot in my car’s CD changer. Over the past months, the other nine discs in that cartridge have been rotated dozens of times, and only now have I been able to pull the Lubbock sextet’s release out long enough to review it. The album is that good.
Lay Low While Crawling is to country music what Jim Jarmusch’s film Deadman was to the western - in the genre, but somehow complicating it in ways that more conventional artists never could or would have thought to. The album is characterized by the melancholic effect of songs with a mostly-consistent relaxed pace and often eerie instrumentation, stringed instruments that at the beginning of songs like “Dirtied Your Knees” sound distant and ephemeral, slowly entering the room that the rest of the band occupies before the song starts in earnest. The laconic pace echoes the Cowboy Junkies, but with a more diverse instrumentation that expands and strengthens the sound.
Perhaps the most impressive element of the album is it’s range, starting out as it does with the upbeat-yet-haunting tune “Beneath the Shoes” and moving on to the strikingly different vocals of Amanda Shires, while several tunes feature a down-tempo, melancholy fiddle that could wrench tears from the stoniest heart. The album primarily features ballads, evoking the image of a looming storm sweeping over the high desert plains. In addition to the haunting instrumentation, Lay Low While Crawling or Creeping is lyrically poetic, even as the rich verses are somewhat quelled by the ghostly reverb and ethereal lull.
I’ve finally brought Lay Low While Crawling or Creeping out from the car, where most of my serious music listening occurs, and into the house. But the fact that it took me so long to make that move, well, that’s about as high a praise as I can muster for a band you’re likely not to have even heard of until now.
Website:
Myspace
