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Tarfumes.com - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
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List Price: $15.98
Our Price: $13.99
Your Save: $ 1.99 ( 12% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Drag City
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0781484035824
Label: Drag City
Manufacturer: Drag City
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Drag City
Release Date: 2008-06-17
Studio: Drag City
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Editorial Reviews:
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2008 release, the sixth album from Silver Jews and their first since Tanglewood Numbers from 2005. All a-sweat and working hard, rumbling with terror and humility like old Johnny Cash, leader David Berman is once again your tour guide into the void, pointing out spots where some dreams died and other candy-colored conceits were conceived.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Surely a Strange Victory
Comment: Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is the latest release from The Silver Jews, and in my opinion it's the most consistent album released by David Berman. Like all SJ releases, it contains the typical amount of sly resignation and witty slacker-sophistication from an eternally sobering songwriter. Berman laments the fate of the suffering jukeboxes in happy towns, country restroom on the radio, the illicit exploits of lard connoisseurs, the importation of squirrels and chicken-fried pigeon in preparation for the onslaught of autumn, and most importantly, the gooey, candy-coated imprisonments we willingly and routinely place ourselves in.
The Silver Jews is a branded band made in the mold of all the current under-the-radar greats such as Neko Case, Giant Sand, Calexico, The Handsome Family, etc. Slightly dark, weird and esoteric? Absolutely, but certainly the music is original, imaginative and with that distinctive southwestern / alt. country flair making it anachronistic enough to be cutting edge.
I daresay that this album may be enough to propel the Silver Jews just beyond their typical squirrelly fan base, but probably and regrettably not enough for mainstream play. It's a shame, since Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea really is a strange victory.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Check your Prescription Mr. Berman
Comment: King David has elected to leave his indie throne to be a happy as hell motivational speaker, in this new age of crisis. Doubleplus Ungood.
Could Cassie be his Yoko? Oy Vey I have issues with the Jooh's.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
Comment: Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (2008, Drag City) Silver Jews' sixth studio album. ***1/2
Silver Jews is not an immediate sound you latch onto. In fact, it's nearly required that you be a fan of Johnny Cash and the Pixies to get into it. All their albums, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea included, are ones that grows with each listen. The opening "What Is Not But Could Be If" sounds like a lecture with lyrics like "What could appear in morning mist/With all associated risk/What is not but could be if." Alternatively, it can be completely idiotic, such as "Party Barge," which ends with Cassie Berman repeating "Send us your coordinates, I'll send a Saint Bernard."
Two moments are truly musically awe-inspiring; the vocally downing "Suffering Jukebox" and the folk sounds of "Strange Victory, Strange Defeat." The former is remarkable for its extended chorus, which again sees Cassie Berman letting loose with pleading lines. While it isn't as introspective as other Silver Jews releases, that's by no means a good or bad thing; if anything, it offers a balance to some of their more melodramatic work and lets David Berman's sense of humor shine through more. This isn't music that you'd hear at a party, but its sound is timeless. Namely, music like this ages very well. (Suffering Jukebox)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Love Child
Comment: A Stephen Merritt meets Ian Curtis with the dramatic antics of Dave Vanian (gone country) conglomerate with undertones of something very darkened by youth. I liked it, to a degree.
Vocals seem overbearing for the orchestration sometimes.
Really dig that cover, though!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Their most accessible album--and maybe their best
Comment: I've always been a sucker for the Silver Jews' more accessible, more countryish songs. Some of my favorites are "Tennessee," "How to Rent A Room," "Black and Brown Blues," and "Random Rules." Well, this new album sounds like it was made just for me. It's so accessible that David Berman has even provided the chords for each of the songs, including a little chart showing where to put your fingers on the guitar neck, so you can play along with them if you'd like.
Cassie Berman is now a full-fledged member of the band, so those who don't like hearing a girl singing with the Silver Jews will have to either get over it or move on. I've always thought that her sweet voice provides the perfect counterpoint to Berman's gravelly baritone. And her bass playing blends right in.
After only three listens, "Suffering Jukebox" is an early favorite. It is classic Berman: a sincere ode to a jukebox that is ignored and neglected. And "Strange Victory, Strange Defeat" begins with the kind of couplet only Berman could write: "Squirrels imported from Connecticut just in time for fall/How much fun is a lot more fun? Not much fun at all." There is a long story-song called "San Francisco B.C." that may at first appear to be following in the footseps of "The Farmer's Hotel," but whereas the other song was slow-moving with impenetrable lyrics, this one is built around a peppy country riff and tells a funny story in which a bad haircut figures prominently. ("It was neatly trimmed but a patch was bare/I knew it wasn't new wave, it was human error.")
I agree with the first reviewer that this is the Jews' most optimistic album yet. It has a lot in common with previous songs like "Animal Shapes" and "I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You" and very little in common with songs like "K-Hole" and "There Is A Place." Berman seems to have gotten past the darkness that dominated the previous album, "Tanglewood Numbers." Even when he sings about addiction (I think), he wraps it in candy metaphors: "Living in a candy jail with peppermint bars/Peanut brittle bunk beds and marshmallow walls."
As always, there is plenty of great wordplay, and as never before, there is a forward-thinking perspective, summed up perfectly in the final song, "We Could Be Looking for the Same Thing." The title says it all, really. This may be the Jews' best album yet.
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