In the Air
(Carrot Top)
Of all the alt-country (y’allternative, No Depression, whatever) acts out there, The Handsome Family are the most ethereal. The Family--- consisting husband and wife Brett and Rennie Sparks---have never sounded closer to actually floating in the clouds than they do on In the Air, their exactingly titled third record. Each release from the Family has poked farther into the existence of a dream world where half-remembered people and blurry figures at the edges of the summertime woods mix with rustic and stirring electro-country musical surroundings into a gripping sound that places them at the vanguard of any kind of “new country” movement that might be afoot in the U S of A.
Rennie pens the disc’s lyrics, thick with striking images: “The Sad Milkman” who fell in love with the moon and stands on a roof staring at it, a lover asleep with blood on his teeth, “Poor, Poor Lenore”, who carried off by crows and tales of lovers who are so deeply devoted they must kill their objects of devotion. Straight out of the underlying edges of songs like “Knoxville Girl” or works by the Carter Family or the Anthology of American Folk Music is what they are. Occasionally, as on “When That Helicopter Comes”, The Handsome Family evoke the downcast banjo hymns of the Bad Livers, but the majority of the time, as on the gorgeous title track, “So Much Wine” or “Don’t Be Scared”, Brett and Rennie come up with lilting and spookily romantic music that is singularly their own. In the Air is their greatest effort yet, and if you have even a remote interest in what can be done with the ancient haunting rites of Country and American Music in the here and now, you owe it to yourself to hear it.
Stinkweeds, 2000
