Wednesday, September 20, 2006
M. Ward
Post War
(Merge Records)
M. Ward makes beautiful haunting records chock-filled with brilliantly inflated lyrics. His old-timey cadence and spectral recording style almost makes one feel his scratchy deep voice should come out of the giant horn of a Victrola. No one since Morrissey has known how to better use a string section than Ward on the opening track “Poison Cup.” The rest of the record is more of a rock record than last year’s Transistor Radio but it still has its peculiarities. He’s like Tom Waits, except, er, actually good instead of ciphering for interesting. The title track is a sleep-walking, slow-dance at the prom of the damned. “Chinese Translation” overflows with brilliant couplets culminating “If life is really as short as they say, then why is the night so long?” ”Rollercoaster” with its red light district piano sounds like it fell off a wax cylinder, so masterful is Ward’s sense of creating a time and place in his music. What saves this from being some antiquarian curiosity is the fact that hearts have been broken forever and will be sung about forever. Ever record by M. Ward is a must-have, including this one. Amen.
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