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Average: 3.5 (29 ratings)
- Date Released: July 10, 2007
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Style: Americana, Rock
- Label: Yep Roc Records / Redeye
Austin mavericks present even more postmodern, word-slinging hoedown music.
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We Say...
Gourds will be Gourds, and they certainly are on this, their ninth album. But be prepared for a few surprises, too. The opening “How Will You Shine?” kicks off with a tinkly mandolin (doubling the piano) right out of Rod Stewart’s Gasoline Alley, hardly an atypical sound for these Austin mavericks. But then the song develops into a personal/political statement — equal parts disillusionment and hopefulness — that’s goosed along by a horn section, two elements that’re quite out of character. Intransigent fans might be even more shocked two songs later by “Promenade,” which is a ballad, fer chrissakes. And not only is it a pretty nifty one at that, full of yearning and regret, but it’s joined by others nearly as good, especially “Moon Going Down” (which sounds like it could have come off their first album, if they had recorded slo-toons back then).
Before anyone accuses the Gourds of going soft, though, they should become immersed in how compatible these ballads, with their rough, straining vocal harmonies and shiny, easy-going banjo and lap steel and accordion, are with such usual fare as “The Gyroscopic,” which sounds like the Band playing the Sir Douglas songbook; the Cajun-flavored “Cranky Mulatto,” a Gourds title if ever there was one; “Flavor on the Tongue,” a sort of hallucinatory Jimmie Rodgers blue yodel; and the swampy “Spivey.” In short, they’re still making postmodern, word-slinging hoedown music that’s as contagious as ever. If the mood is sometimes more downbeat, well, that’s America 2007. -
They Say...
Prolific Austin, TX hillbilly scholars the Gourds' eighth full-length release is the veteran group's most relaxed since 2000s excellent Bolsa de Agua. Noble Creatures, a title gleaned from the Beach Boys-kissed "Gyroscopic," a classic Jimmy Smith rumination on everything from Ulysses to bottle-nose dolphins that ends with the line "Only in horniness will we prevail," holds its magnifying glass up to life in southwest with the usual backwoods elegance, beer hall poetry, and sharp, border town nomenclature, but there is a new sense of maturity here that while present on previous releases, makes a keen impression from the very moment of departure. Kevin "Shinyribs" Russell's bubbly opener "How Will I Shine" sets the pace with a full horn section and a winning refrain of "Sit down with your woman/Tell her the way that you feel" that in anybody else's hands would sound coy. Smith follows with the Band-inspired "Kicks in the Sun," the ballsy "A Few Extra Kilos," and the typically irreverent "Spivey," but this is Russell's album. "Promenade," "Moon Gone Down," "Last Letter," and "Steeple Full of Swallows" are four of the finest songs he's ever put to tape, and like all good ballads they soar on melody, speak the truth, be it amiable or devastating and leave the listener clamoring for a second spin. Noble Creatures ranks high among the group's deepening catalog, and its top-notch production could land it in some laps that the band's previous recordings may have missed. It's also a fitting description of these off-center country bards, and would prove apt if they ever considered a name change.
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You Say...
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| 01. |  |
How Will You Shine? |
5:11 |  |
| 02. | |
Kicks In The Sun |
3:48 | |
| 03. | |
Promenade |
5:30 | |
| 04. | |
A Few Extra Kilos |
3:40 | |
| 05. | |
Last Letter |
5:00 | |
| 06. | |
The Gyroscopic |
3:05 | |
| 07. | |
Moon Gone Down |
3:42 | |
| 08. | |
Red Letter Day |
2:50 | |
| 09. | |
Out On The Vine |
3:34 | |
| 10. | |
Cranky Mulatto |
3:12 | |
| 11. | |
Steeple Full Of Swallows |
3:51 | |
| 12. | |
All In The Pack |
2:53 | |
| 13. | |
Flavor On The Tongue |
4:13 | |
| 14. | |
Spivey |
3:50 | |
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Credits
- Chet Himes - Mixing // Max Johnston - Banjo // Max Johnston - Fiddle // Max Johnston - Guitar // Max Johnston - Mandolin // Max Johnston - Vocals // Max Johnston - Lap Steel Guitar // Keith Langford - Harmonica // Keith Langford - Drums // Michael Crow - Engineer // Ned Stewart - Engineer // Ramsay Midwood - Guitar // Jimmy Smith - Bass // Jimmy Smith - Guitar // Jimmy Smith - Vocals
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