Smog "A River Ain't Too Much To Love"

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I'm absolutely loving this (of course), definately his best since "Dongs of Sevotion" (probably my favourite). Sonically and thematically it seems somewhere between "Supper" and "Red Apple Falls" but much closer to the latter. For the most part it's extremely spare: guitar, voice empty space and Jim White's sublime drumming... with some added banjo and violin on some tracks. No real surprises, just Bill Callahan doing his thing. "The Well" is his best track for years and one of the very best Smog songs, the moment where he slows the track riiiiight down to sing "FUCK ALL Y'ALL" Is my musical moment of the year.

also, he's lost the parentheses.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 28 April 2005 23:00 (twenty years ago)

http://www.girlieaction.com/Band%20Pages/smog/smog-coverart72.jpg

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 28 April 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

I love that album cover. I have only heard "The Well" once and I liked it, but I wish it wasn't 7 minutes long.

― On a Strict El Cholo Diet (Bent Over at the Arclight), Thursday, 28 April 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

I really like Red Apple Falls. That is a horrible album cover, though.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 28 April 2005 23:13 (twenty years ago)

i love it too. he benefits from this type of production (vocals totally dry = key). I'm pretty impressed by almost every song. Nice 'indie' surprise after the letdowns of Spoon, M Ward, etc.

I agree it may very well be his best record. GREAT in the car for rainy mornings.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Thursday, 28 April 2005 23:18 (twenty years ago)

I'm looking forward to it now, colin, after your exhortations on friday night.

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 28 April 2005 23:22 (twenty years ago)

"oh to live in the country/ with the chickens and those other things"

he does some surprising things with his voice on "The Well" - it cracks on the opening line, i like that. but yeah i agree his voice sounds great on this one.

also that M Ward album is a real grower.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 28 April 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

cozen, i had only heard one track by that point!

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 28 April 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

stylus will be podcasting my interview with him sometime soon. i have mixed feelings about this record. i really liked supper - i just feel that this one is pretty trope-y. the rebirth thing has been done to death imo.

― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Thursday, 28 April 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

jed - re: M Ward - i feel the opposite! At first, the woman and I were all, "ah, great! another beautiful M Ward record! It sounds great!" and then, after listening a few times, I wondered, "isn't this just a less inspired version of the last two albums?"

It's almost as if this was the album he was SURE everyone was going to hear, the album that, post Oberst / Jim James tour, would 'break' him, so he just repeated himself so no one would miss out. That 'lost days of freeform radio' theme has been done to death, too. So Clear Channel sucks, huh? You wanna hear 'good' music on the radio, do you? How very bold and controversial to take such an unpopular stand!

I'm only bitter because I bought it instead of downloading it.

FWIW, he's an AMAZING live performer, and his last two albums got plenty of play in this house.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:09 (twenty years ago)

Jed and El Cholo OTM.

I actually think this record is the best since Knock Knock.

Great live show, too, if you've never seen them.

― cdwill, Friday, 29 April 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

he is a good live performer. live it really reminds you what a terrific voice he has.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:50 (twenty years ago)

"the well" is fantastic. and i love the production on the whole record, the clear creaking voice in your ear.

― Sean M (Sean M), Friday, 29 April 2005 09:09 (twenty years ago)

Oooh, when is this out? I really love "Supper," it's so underrated.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 29 April 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

IT'S NO JULIUS CAESAR.

I still love it.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Friday, 29 April 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

I saw him watch a fight once.

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 29 April 2005 14:12 (twenty years ago)

i've seen him live maybe a few too many times to get excited about it, but usually he's been really good. his songs are very satisfying. i will have to buy this new one.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 29 April 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

I have to say it again - I really love this record! Even the one or two songs where the melody ain't really there (the first song, "Drinking At The Dam," etc) the lyrics totally redeem it. Favorite at the moment is "Rock Bottom Riser"

My favorite since at least Doctor Came At Dawn (which I always preferred by a nose to Red Apple Falls, mostly for college / nostalgia / old girlfriend reasons though). Haven't cared much for any of his last three or four, except the odd song here or there ("Dress Sexy At My Funeral" rules, and about half of "Supper," none of Rain on Lens or Knock Knock from what I remember)

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Friday, 29 April 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

yeah "Rock Bottom Riser" is great but sounds very familiar on the first couple of listens = maybe i'll tire of it? fwiw "Dress Sexy..." is the one tune that stops Dongs of Sevotion being a perfect record. I know it's a great song but i'd really rather it wasn't on the album. It's funny but i've never really understood why people are so crazy about it.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 29 April 2005 22:22 (twenty years ago)

oh man! the lead guitar part (after 'dress pulled up to there') - it's so unlike anything else he's done, almost reminds me of late-period Leonard Cohen (The Future, in particular) - I see what you mean about it not fitting, but I thought it 'didn't fit' in a good way.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Friday, 29 April 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

"Rock Bottom Riser" seems to be evidence of a journey Bill seems to have taken in the last few years, certainly since "rain on lens".

I love my mother
I love my father
I love my sisters too
I bought this guitar
...to pledge my love to you

and his move from the murk (at the bottom of the river) towards the light is what this song (and maybe the whole album) is about. I wonder if this is the end of misanthropic Bill who took his girfriends "party invitation list/ and wrote "enemies" at the top of it/then i asked you to go on a short drive with me/ so i could point out some more of our enemies" or who breaks horses but "don't tend to them" ? or if it's just another side of the coin. Much as i love the record i'd miss the hate.

(apologies for simplistic reading of the lyrics)

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 1 May 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

of course there's evidence of this on "Supper" too, esp. on tracks like "Truth Serum".

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 1 May 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

no matter how far wrong you've gone
you can always turn around
turn around turn around turn around
and you may come full circle
and be new here again

Unlike Blackmail.is.my.life upthread - i don't find that "tropey" just sincere and refreshing. You may think "the rebirth thing has been done to death" but bill hasn't really done it, he puts a good spin on it, and really, what's music for if rebirth isn't one of the things you can express with it or even look for in it?

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 1 May 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

~~look for~~ seek out

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 1 May 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

I like it a lot. Def. one of his best.
'The Well' is nnot too long! Sometimes I listen to it twice in a row. It's the real 'grabber' track on the record - Smog seems to have one of these catchier songs on each album that stand out on the first few spins, though they're usually more V.U.-ish to my ears. Though now, I think my favorite songs are 'Mother of the World' and 'In the Pines'.

Does anyone know if Bill's playing all the guitar on this? I don't think here's anyone one else credited, but I don't remember him being this good at the finger-pickin' before.
Also, what are the chances there's some uncredited Willie Nelson work on this? It was recorded at his studio in Texas. I've always thought Bill's singing - his voice and phrasing - reminded me of Willie's, so this detail of the album's creation is interesting to me.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Sunday, 1 May 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

who else plays on this, btw?

bill is a decent fingerpicker. someday i need to get this and prolly "supper" too.

tim why don't you like the cover? i'm curious, i think it's kinda cool.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 1 May 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

The cover is fine, it's very fitting.

I am REALLY into this particluar 'rebirth thing,' if that is indeed what Bill is on about - i'm finally convinced that it's his best record.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Sunday, 1 May 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

I've been listening to "The Well" over and over again too. It's exactly as long as it needs to be.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 1 May 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

on first listen,

v. good. esp. rock bottom riser and the last two tracks.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 5 May 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

RBR does remind me of I break horses, actually, at times.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 5 May 2005 12:03 (twenty years ago)

yeah that's true. it's like a positive version.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 5 May 2005 12:27 (twenty years ago)

his move from the murk (at the bottom of the river) towards the light

i'm really hesitant to characterize bill's work in such conventional journey-of-self-discovery singer-songwriter terms. he's much too clever and determinedly cagey for that. his whole aesthetic (including the name of the "band," and the erstwhile parentheses) sort of defies attempts at this kind of james tayloresque reading.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 5 May 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

not that there aren't great songwriters/singers who might submit to that kind of analysis; there are. i just don't think bill is one of them.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 5 May 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

when you hear the album i think you'll know what i mean. besides i'd already put that disclaimer in there.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 5 May 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

have to agree with roger f (hey bro! drop us a line) that this is bill's best record yet. funny thing: first time i heard it i was so nonplussed, really like, 'gah, whatever - next!' now? i think this could be the best thing i've heard all year. (and thankfully, in the last few weeks, i've finally heard a bunch of records i want to make that claim about...)

"say valley maker" and "the well" and "mother of the world" and "drinking at the dam" probably knock me out the most.

― jwd, Monday, 9 May 2005 10:20 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

yo amst you heard this yet? i'm keen on your stance and so interested to see what you think callahan's up to.

― Josh (Josh), Friday, 10 June 2005 09:07 (twenty years ago)

nick copied it for me last week (?? i think ??) so yes i have it. i need to listen to it a lot more. i like it a lot. though i miss steel guitar. i don't think i can do it justice with anything that i write, though.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

beautiful singing on this record. it also seems more literary than his usual, more elaborate turns of phrase maybe? or just more subtle and unlikely uses of metaphor.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

i think the "happy" aspect of this record (that people have noted above) is pretty literary too, not really "confessional" except in scare quotes.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

i mean this record somehow reminds me in its conceits of certain folky records of the 1970s made under the influence of various california-esque spiritual cults/movements/eastern religions. like father yod and john fahey and maybe some less weird stuff. but i think this is self-aware. look at the cover.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:48 (twenty years ago)

This reminds me of the path Will Oldham took with Ease Down the Road and Master + Everyone, some of the wierdness and occasional harshness of the old material is gone because they both have reached some type of personal closure, comfort, transcendance...definetely self-aware, and less self-concious...and I'm beginning to think its his best work, possibly my favorite album of the year

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

i seriously miss the "color" of the steel guitar.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 10 June 2005 13:59 (twenty years ago)

I really really love this as well. I reviewed it for Stylus a week ago, so I won't rehash what I said there, but I have decided that I too think it is his best album now. Took it a while to dethrone "Dongs" but it has. Early contender for my Album of 2005. Anyone else got it up that high?

And I agree, his singing is great on this.

― Hutlock (Hutlock), Friday, 10 June 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)

Does anyone think a river is too much to love?

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 10 June 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

well they're pretty big. and they keep moving!

― Josh (Josh), Friday, 10 June 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

album of the year so far. no contest.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 10 June 2005 21:21 (twenty years ago)

so hopeful. that's nice.

― jane (jane), Friday, 10 June 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

one of my tops so far, for sure (top 2 or 3)

― Sean M (Sean M), Friday, 10 June 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

The Well works fantastically, well, ,well live.

― danski (danski), Saturday, 11 June 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

is Jim White on this tour?

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 11 June 2005 11:50 (twenty years ago)

Yes.

― danski (danski), Saturday, 11 June 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

great!

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 11 June 2005 12:28 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

(1) chloe sevigny in smog video - http://www.dragcity.com/video/DC292vid_sm.mov

(2) did no one really choose this for pazz and jop?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 8 January 2006 04:50 (twenty years ago)

Now "Drinking At the Dam" is my favorite!

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Sunday, 8 January 2006 05:47 (twenty years ago)

Dude, are you serious? Does that song really contain the lyrics "Oh, do I feel like the mother of the world?".

Holy shit, that's serious garbage music. Quicktime doesn't work on my computer (mainly because Macintosh products are gay, and so is skim latte, Jettas, etc) so I just got some of the vocal, but do you have any idea what the 13 year-old you would say if they heard the music that you currently like (if you do indeed currently like this)? They'd say, GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY YOU ARE FUCKED.

Now I'm happy to admit that music appreciation is subject to taste, but I'm also going to go ahead and say that if you think this is good, then you are WRONG.

And whoever said "GREAT in the car for rainy mornings" is an absolute blockhead. That's like saying, "GREAT about to be decapitated by some people that just sodomized you (music)".

― Gordon Lightfood, Sunday, 8 January 2006 06:27 (twenty years ago)

ladies and gentlemen, the internet.

― pompe vers le haut du volume (haitch), Sunday, 8 January 2006 12:55 (twenty years ago)

The standard of trolls on ILM really is falling.

― Last Of The Famous International Pfunkboys (Kerr), Sunday, 8 January 2006 12:57 (twenty years ago)

it is the worst song on the album though.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 8 January 2006 13:06 (twenty years ago)

haha, probably right actually.

the 13-year-old me liked chart house, if I recall correctly.

I still prefer knock knock to this, but it is really good. slept on it for most of the year, too; a friend burned me a copy and I only remembered I had it in the last few weeks. "the well" and "rock bottom riser" are my faves.

― pompe vers le haut du volume (haitch), Sunday, 8 January 2006 13:14 (twenty years ago)

I disagree, Jed! Anyhow it was a terrific album, but at the same time for me it didn't have quite the punch that it could've had...can't quite put my finger on what the problem was for me because I thought the whole album was really good. Hmm.

― Mr Straight Toxic (ghostface), Sunday, 8 January 2006 13:17 (twenty years ago)

Holy shit, that's serious garbage music.
For what it's worth, the singer certainly sleeps with better looking women than you do.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Sunday, 8 January 2006 14:30 (twenty years ago)

Chloe Sevigny in unable to convincingly play a maid or anyone else working class non shocker.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Sunday, 8 January 2006 15:02 (twenty years ago)

But I like Callahan as the news anchor.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Sunday, 8 January 2006 15:02 (twenty years ago)

i'm quite disappointed in bill, chloe is such and indie cliché (& i like her). bad video. the one for rock bottom riser is pretty good though.

xp yeah bill looks like a news anchor now.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 8 January 2006 15:04 (twenty years ago)

he's always looked a bit newsanchorish!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 8 January 2006 16:55 (twenty years ago)

(i mean that in a good way)

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 8 January 2006 16:55 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I think it's part of his charm -- that he looks so conservative and un singer-songwriter-like.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Sunday, 8 January 2006 17:17 (twenty years ago)

he's very handsome imo

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 8 January 2006 17:43 (twenty years ago)

The alt.country David Byrne (both physically and lyrically)?

― Mike W (caek), Sunday, 8 January 2006 18:43 (twenty years ago)

his voice is way lower than db, and he's more filled out, less wiry.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 8 January 2006 19:01 (twenty years ago)

Yes, but he dresses like a photocopier repairman, and his lyrics are literal rather than abstract. JUST LIKE BYRNE. Possibly.

Also, he was rude to my friends at the Smog show in Leeds last year (I was in the toilet, otherwise I would have kicked his ass). I like to think David Byrne would have been just as rude.

― Mike W (caek), Sunday, 8 January 2006 19:26 (twenty years ago)

his voice is the best its ever been here, but none of the songs really stick for me

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Sunday, 8 January 2006 19:48 (twenty years ago)

i really like it a lot. it's possibly i just am taking a breather from his earlier stuff, but right now this and "supper" are my favorite among his records.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 8 January 2006 21:37 (twenty years ago)

I like the record and the video and the song for the video.

― adamrl (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 17:59 (twenty years ago)

I saw him play in Berkeley just after I moved (when hstencil was his tour manager!) and he was good. He walked through the crowd playing guitar (but maybe he does that a lot).

― adamrl (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 18:00 (twenty years ago)

I am absolutely in love with this music video:

Smog - Rock Bottom Riser
http://www.dragcity.com/video/dc292smogrbr_sm.mov

― Mickey (modestmickey), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 20:52 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

so comforting.

― javabitch, Wednesday, 8 March 2006 14:21 (twenty years ago)

seven years pass...

best album

― just sayin, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 22:25 (twelve years ago)

just sayin

― Evan, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 22:32 (twelve years ago)

Yep.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 22:42 (twelve years ago)

yea i love this album. it has such a warm, dry feeling to it. sparse. callahan's voice is so steady and comforting here.

― marcos, Wednesday, 20 November 2013 14:35 (twelve years ago)

honestly though "the well" gets a lot of praise but i feel like it's my least favorite song on here? still like it though.

― marcos, Wednesday, 20 November 2013 14:37 (twelve years ago)

Yeah, I like "The Well", but it's far from my favorite song on here. This album is definitely one of his very best, if not THE best.

Don't hear it get mentioned a lot, but I love "Drinking at the Dam". Evocative of a lot my own teenage horsin' around, just substitute "tracks" for "dam".

"It was the first part of my life
Second is the rest"

― circa1916, Wednesday, 20 November 2013 14:52 (twelve years ago)

yes! i love drinking at the dam.

"skin mags in the brambles / for the first part of my life / i thought women had orange skin" me, too

― marcos, Wednesday, 20 November 2013 14:54 (twelve years ago)

ha, that was the quote i almost pulled. so good.

― circa1916, Wednesday, 20 November 2013 14:57 (twelve years ago)

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