LAMBCHOPOH (ohio)
(Merge)
**** 1/2 (out of 5)
There are few singing voices in pop music whose company I enjoy more than Lambchop singer/songwriter Kurt Wagner. Sometimes it’s buried so deep in the mix that I can barely make out the lyrics, but his inimitable, laid-back vocal style — which I’d describe as “countrypolitan Sprechstimme” if it weren’t for the fact that doing so would make me sound like a total douche — has such a warm, conversational sense of phrasing that even after 10 albums is as relaxing as a warm bath.
Understanding the words has never been the point with Lambchop anyhow; Wagner’s cryptic lyrics are best savoured in small doses, in phrases that rise to the surface, resonate briefly, and then sink back into the depths, like the letters in a bowl of alphabet soup. On OH (ohio), the songs that connected with me were the rueful “Slipped Dissolved and Loosed,” the amusingly laconic call to action “Please Rise,” and especially “A Hold of You,” a soulful song addressed to a woman who seems fated to remain perpetually out of reach. Maybe Wagner will get closer to her on the next album.
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