The Cerberus Shoal is the star of the show for me. It keeps reminding me of something but I have such a musical amnesia I can't think of what. 5% Beirut and 5% Dead Can Dance and 5% Deep Forest in that background woodwind panning left and right and 85% something else entirely.

does BOB come crawling over the couch in that bill callhan song? cause i still close my eyes at that part and i don't want to listen to this song if it's going to freak me out.

hahaha. Naw, this one's all White Lodge 'n shit.

and the record is really disappointing? i was looking foward to it based on the song "day". you don't like that song? i think it's great.

that song's got a good riddim for it, but c'mon man - it is SO half-assed. everywhere on this record it feels like he's leaning on the tropes he's used to, just the same kind of flimsy metaphors. the poetry doesn't feel worked at all; it doesn't feel spare, it feels banal. point me to something hot or precise on the record (other than on "sycamore", obv). "like tryin' ain't enough" -- PLEASE. it's not.

the first track just makes me kind of ill it's so imprecise.

i don't know sean, you've got me in a bit of a corner here. i don't know bill callhan's work AT ALL. i just really like that funny little keyboard bit in "day". that's the only song i've heard from the record.

perhaps i should get the last smog record rather than the new bill callahan record?

Oh no! If what you are saying of Woke on a Whaleheart is true, I'll be SO sad. A River Ain't Too Much to Love IS great, and go one album back and gimme Supper. That one had Vessel In Vain, Feather By Feather, etc. If this is Bill Callahan, bring back (smog). Or at least bring back the parenthesis! Let me see the Colts!

"All you wanna do is be the fire part of fire"?!?!? Come. On.

Background vocals?!?! And awful ones at that.

Yes, George, get the last two albums.

Thanks for the tune anyway Sean, best blog in the world.

Dig the new header.

I'm loving all the Twin Peaks references...

love the callahan and the gorilla!!!

Loved the new Bill Callahan, this sounds pretty lovely anything beyond Smog expect Rad Apple Falls. Such a great record.

"Under the Sycamore Tree" is the scary-ass song that Dale hears when he first enters the Black Lodge for that final confrontation in Twin Peaks. I believe Lynch wrote the song. Anybody?

Whoa, I remember cerberus shoal being a pretty typical post-rock this is an impressive curveball, I'd say they sound a bit like Comus now.

Love the new header, I've been thinking of doing a rotating header thing myself but all the illustrators I've contacted disappear as soon as I tell them there's no money involved.

I totally disagree with you on the Bill Callahan album.. it's hazy alright (as opposed to lazy), but I think the slightly underwritten, ramshackle feel is deliberate, and it works.. And if you want something precise, how about 'Night'?.. I think that's possibly the most beautiful thing he's done, and it's done & dusted in 3 minutes. Rivers to the Ocean, Diamond Dancer and A Man Needs a Woman Or A Man also jump in among his best tracks, in my book, along with the one you posted. I was disappointed in the record too at first but it's 'grown' more than anything I've heard in the last six months.. I say give it time.

Don - 'Sycamore Trees' was indeed written by Lynch, with Angelo Badalamenti. Performed by Little Jimmy Scott, who actually shows up in the Black Lodge, cementing his legend.

PS - This guitar line sounds nothing like James' song, but whatever, I dig the reference.