I asked on Twitter on Saturday night if anyone had heard the new Calexico album (Algiers) and Simon said he wouldn't listen to them because of their name and Drew said he'd never heard them either and was he missing anything. Their early stuff like The Black Light was great, all slow-mo spaghetti and mariachi influenced stuff, a lot of instrumentals. A couple of albums in they became more song based, with more vocals- Hot Rail from 2000 and Feast Of Wire from 2003 were crackers, full of songs with beauty and drama and horns. At some point more recently (the Garden Ruin lp from 2006, which isn't that recent really) they abandoned the more Tex-Mexican side of things for a straighter, more mainstream US indie-noir sound which seemed far less interesting to me. So, I'm no nearer to knowing whether the new one is any good but to Drew and Simon and anyone else who hasn't heard them, start with this one- a song concerning a man about to drive his car over a cliff while listening to Stevie Nicks.
Not Even Stevie Nicks
That's alright SA. I may have to investigate further. Reminds me a bit of Grandaddy.
ReplyDeleteNot one to make hyperbolic statements but Feast of Wire is quite simply the best album ever made. And I'm surprised Drew hasn't heard it. And they're a great live band (well, they were in 2006). And you can get free downloads of some of their concerts (soundboard recordings too) from the Internet Archive website.
ReplyDeleteFeast of Wire is even better than Pet Sounds
ReplyDeleteBetter than Astral Weeks as well.
ReplyDeleteAlgiers mostly reverts back to the texmex sound of the earlier albums. I saw them live a few years back and was impressed, they really rocked out on a few tracks, great musicians.
ReplyDeletebeing quite a one for a mariachi horn i liked the mariachi horny ones they used to do but didn't like the gloomy rock dullness ones at all. i really am very keen on a mariachi horn
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