Week of September 3, 2009, Issue #724
ALBUM REVIEWS
The Minus 5
Killingsworth
Mary Christa O'Keefe // marychrista@vueweekly.com
If anything on Killingsworth sounds vaguely familiar, it’s probably because it is: the Minus 5 is the ultimate tastemaker’s supergroup, constantly recruiting talent from the cream of the alterative music crop in the vicinity of Portland and Seattle. Yes, that’s Colin Meloy, out of fey sea shanty mode, singing about Scott Walker on a middle track, backed by sunnily limpid rock channeled from the very early '70s. And yes, those textures of strings and percussion embedded in a tapestry of instrumentation as deep and heavy as a summer evening are reminiscent of Peter Buck production. You’ll also recognize the references masterfully woven into 14 solid songs by Minus 5 lifeblood Scott McCaughey, melodic, superbly executed and etched with lyrics as literary as any great American novel: swampy Southern Gothicism, '60s power pop, poignant and lonesome balladry and a straight-ahead Jesus country song that wryly quotes apocalypticisms. Driven by (mostly) McCaughey’s lovely urgent voice and deftly ornamented by a chorus of golden-throated honeys, it’s a long meaty album, precisely crafted.
The Minus 5
Killingsworth
(Yep Rock)
Social Bookmarking
Got something to say? Send a letter to the editor.
letters@vueweekly.com