Lambchop
Nixon (Merge)
This fifth full-length from Nashville’s psychedelic country chamber soul band Lambchop is a highly weird and wonderful concept album that might be about the rise and fall of Richard Milhous Nixon. See, there aren’t any direct references to Deep Throat, Cambodia, or little Tricia, but trying to divine a plot out of leading man Kurt Wagner’s stream-of-consciousness lyrics has always required large amounts of poetic license. With the name of the album and a list of suggested reading by and about Nixon as a departure point, the 13-plus-piece collective urges us to stage an imaginary Broadway production about the rise and fall of our 37th president. “Grumpus” reimagines Tricky Dick as a misunderstood drunk, while the love generation protests with hand-clapping and a backing gospel choir in “Up With People.” “Nashville Parent” finds the lonely president on a White House balcony, crooning to the night sky over his Watergate worries. Pat Nixon puffs up her insecure husband with “You Masculine You” before the rousing duet “The Distance From Her to There,” if we may be so bold as to ascribe Wagner’s falsetto to the role of the first lady. A cover of the traditional “The Butcher Boy” closes the album on a sinister, chaotic note, a fitting end to the tale of the disgraced leader. Through it all, what could be a joke that gets old fast is elevated to a sprawling work of art, thanks to Lambchop’s lush, soulful arrangements and Wagner’s highly developed sense of humor. Try wrapping your head around this one.
This article appears in February 18 • 2000.