Handsome Family
In the Air
(Carrot Top)
One reason I've resisted this Chicago alt-country duo's charms for so long
is they've sometimes settled for doomy faux-Appalachian imagery that
strikes me as fraudulent coming from urban marrieds who frequent the same
neighborhood haunts I do. Well, I resist no more. On this, their fourth
and best long-player, wife and wordsmith Rennie Sparks pretty much
mothballs the mountainside murders and mossy hollows of her most florid
stanzas in favor of bad drunks and guys with bridge phobias, while
husband, vocalist and tune architect Brett Sparks sings 'em and plays 'em
like a Harry Smith devotee with a guilty Bauhaus jones. That's not to say
the songs don't head off to darkest West Virginia every now and then. But
if they keep writing lines like "I wanted to tell you all the ways that I
loved you, but instead I got sick on the train," and "The hills are
scattered with empty wheelchairs and hearing aids thrown to the ground,"
I'm more than willing to concede them a little time outside the city
limits. Rating: 8
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