10Listens approval rating: 100%
For the past 3 weeks I’ve lived with Califone’s “All My Friends Are Funeral Singers” in the same way I’ve lived with the haze that accompanies the first few minutes of being awake. And the last few seconds before you fall asleep. And every other sensation that’s instantly familiar but blurry and shrouded. It happens to be one of the finest records of 2009.
Califone has always occupied that dusty critical corner where the words “experimental” “americana” and “post-whateverthefuck” get tossed around to make it sound like the band is some sort of tough nut to crack. It’s obfuscation– whether intentional or unintentional I am unable to say, because what has lied at the heart of all their records are songs. Rusty old songs, with buzzing strings, low harmonies and hooks. Califone is a pop band for people that like tumbleweeds and cough syrup. They were on the soundtrack for Stranger Than Fiction for christ’s sake.
Ostensibly, “All My Friends Are Funeral Singers” is itself a soundtrack. Singer Tim Ritilli has directed a film of the same name, and they are companion pieces to each other. Without having seen the film yet, I can tell you that this record does as fine a job of rendering places, feelings and classic mystery as well as anything with or without a visual element can.
Opener “Giving Away The Bride” stutter steps it’s way into your headphones in a way that on first lesson sounded distant and mechanical. By the tenth listen, the opening crack of the drum machine and Ritilli’s stretching of “bride” into a nine syllable word conjure the kind of dark and warm atmospheres that mark the rest of the record. If you’ve already heard it, the first few seconds of the record allow you to hear it all again. It’s the most fitting lede for a record you’ll hear.
Second track, “Polish Girls”, is a straight ahead detuned stomp. Well, straight ahead except for the cryptic lyrics that mark much of the record and the band’s catalog as a whole. Polish Girls in ruins? There are spiders involved? Of course there are. And you’ll sing along.
It’s post-cliche to refer to albums as their “whole,” as if not having any singles on it is an artistic statement. But as each track bleeds into the next, the sequencing here is indeed part of the art. The album’s first peak is the 1-2 whiskey punch of “Funeral Singers” and “Louis Bunuel.” The former packs a rambling lyric sheet best described as urgent. Coupled with detached TV like voices it’s tune that in lesser hands would come across as cliche. “All my friends are keeping time/all my friends just quit trying,” is a line so evocative and its static imagery so opposed to the driving nature of the tune that the 6 seconds it takes to sing are some of the best I’ve heard all year. The latter is a tribute to “The father of cinematic Surrealism” (thanks wikipedia), that interestingly is one of the most straight forward story songs on the record.
And so breaking down each track, while possible, is ultimately futile. “Krill” rules. “Better Angels” is an epic closer that does its job as well as “Giving Away The Bride” does its. But if there is a way that Califone can recommend itself it’s with the line from “Bunuel” in which Ritili sings “every whorehouse and every sycamore/knows a better way to make you wait.” There’s a cross between those kinds of shadiness and that kind of majesty that’s been tried many times, but at this point in their career and on this record Califone has shown their mastery of the craft.
Since they’ve mastered such a hazy craft, “All My Friends…” is a perfect record for the 10Listens experiment. The common notion of a record that grows on you is that through repeated spins, the record’s themes expand and you hear things you haven’t previously heard. What makes “All My Friends Are Funeral Singers” great the 10th, 20th, and 30th times is that the bands vision for the record becomes more precise. Clearer. You know exactly what to expect from it each time you listen. And it’s a singular pleasure.
Author’s note: Califone is touring for the record by playing along to the film. I’ll be seeing them here in Boston on 10/22 and will report back.