Songs In A & E

Psychedelic dream pop. Simple acoustic guitar based songs, centered around Jason Pierce's hoarse vocals and accompanied by an assortment of other instruments including accordion, organ and fiddle, as well as a choir. Very folky feeling throughout. Most songs' lyrics are quite morose, dealing mostly with love, death and drugs. Rather than being bleak though, this makes for a very enjoyable listening experience. I was kind of reminded of Low and Current 93, as well as the Velvet Underground (obviously) and possibly Syd Barrett. By the way, A&E stands for "Accidents and Emergencies Ward", which is where Pierce spent a good part of 2005 recovering from a rare case of double pneumonia. Kind of explains the feel of this album. Recommended!

Picks: 9,4,2,3,5

1. short instrumental, mellotron
2. waltzy, dream feel here
3. breathing samples throughout sad song about death
4. rocking, upbeat. like "give me shelter" by the stones
5. another upbeat song, ethereal fiddle sound, sweet
6. short instrumental, piano
7. sad, minor keys, beautiful vocals
8. another upbeat stonesy rocker with background electronic freakout
9. the album's wildest song. starts quietly, then enter feedback heavy guitar and distorted vocals with choir and crazy organ background. excellent
10. short choral piece
11. longest song. starts silly and playful. fiddle-centered psychedelic jam towards the end
12. sweet love ballad with male-female vocal duet
13. quiet instrumental, piano and fiddle
14. again folky, ethereal and waltzy
15. instrumental, accordion based
16. cynical. seemingly happy song with very dark lyrics about a guy shooting his whole family. cool!
17. another short instrumental
18. seet lullaby outro song