Silver Jews
Tanglewood Numbers (Drag City)
With its master tapes barely avoiding destruction in a fire that gutted Memphis’ famed Easley McCain Recording Studio in May, the Silver Jews’ fifth album may well be an honest-to-goodness token of charm. For Tanglewood Numbers, bandleader/poet and one-time Dallasite David Berman assembled a rotating lineup that includes Pavement guitarist Stephen Malkmus and drummer Bob Nastanovich, Berman’s vocalist wife, Cassie, and several other notables like Will Oldham and Bobby Bare Jr. Together they build a languid yet invigorating shrine to indie-pop, Americana, and nudie shirt psychedelia that electrifies the blood and squeegees the mind. Even so, Berman’s punk adolescence remains a philosophical touchstone. A scorching Malkmus guitar breakdown on “Punks in the Beerlight” certainly doesn’t hurt, either. Berman’s gruff vocal gives “Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed” a lurid Velvets vibe, while the violin and mandolin on “Animal Shapes” channels somnambulant left-of-the-dial transcendence of the Camper Van Beethoven variety. “The Poor, the Fair and the Good” could almost pass for misty mountain music, and “There Is a Place” details an epic personal struggle not unlike Berman’s own. Following an unconventional spiritual path back from that place “past the blues,” Tanglewood Numbers hints at charmed redemption even for those not typically given to such notions.
This article appears in Barbara Bush.
