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Avg: 3.5 (51 ratings)
- Date Released: July 7, 2009
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Style: Rock, Pop
- Label: Yep Roc Records / Redeye
The latest deranged feat of curatorial outrageousness from Scott McCaughey
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We Say...
On "Ambulance Dancehall," singer and songwriter Scott McCaughey finally goes too far. It's odd enough that the song opens as a fiddle-and-guitar country shuffle borrowed from Texas legend Doug Sahm via early-'90s alt-rockers Uncle Tupelo, then slides into a surreal tale about a Civil War-era hospital turned nightclub where the featured entertainment is a band called Florence and the Nightingales, and which a cult of "Christians and killers" sets ablaze. What's really deranged is when the song turns into a spoof of '60s dance-craze hits. "Ambulance dancehall/Do the Gangrene, do the Break," McCaughey sings. "Ambulance dancehall/ Do the amputated leg." Killingsworth, McCaughey's latest feat of curatorial outrageousness, pairs the neo-traditionalism of the Decemberists with some of the most profoundly unhinged lyrics this side of '60s psychedelia. "The Lurking Barrister" describes the damaging exploits of a corrupt Melvillian lawyer against plucked banjo and slapped cymbals; "Dark Hand of Contagion" encrypts a story of romantic jealousy into a peaceful, easy, Eagles-style ballad. McCaughey possesses the capacity to be direct: "Big Beat Up Moon" captures a woman adrift in a modern condominium wasteland, marveling at the sheer volume of loneliness that surrounds her. "How can there be so many people stacked up in rows/That still feel all alone?" she wonders. It's a brief respite of sentimentality before McCaughey plunges back into the luscious insanity.
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| 01. |  |
Dark Hand of Contagion
|
3:24 |
|
| 02. | |
The Long Hall
|
3:04 |
|
| 03. | |
The Disembowlers
|
3:10 |
|
| 04. | |
The Luerking Barrister
|
3:05 |
|
| 05. | |
It Won't Do You Any Good
|
1:50 |
|
| 06. | |
Vintage Violet
|
2:40 |
|
| 07. | |
Scott Walker's Fault
|
3:08 |
|
| 08. | |
Big Beat Up Moon
|
3:11 |
|
| 09. | |
I Would Rather Sacrifice You
|
2:58 |
|
| 10. | |
Ambulance Dancehall
|
2:51 |
|
| 11. | |
Gash In The Cocoon
|
3:57 |
|
| 12. | |
Smoke On, Jerry
|
3:13 |
|
| 13. | |
Favorite Mess
|
2:18 |
|
| 14. | |
Tonight You're Buying Me A Drink, Bub
|
2:51 |
|
14 Total Tracks, 41:40 Total Length
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