CALIFONE "Roots & Crowns" Thrill Jockey
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ANYONE WAITING FOR CALIFONE'S new album to kick in will wait the entire 48-minute running time -- but not unpleasurably. Sort of trip-hop without the hop, the music on "Roots & Crowns" musters solid melodies and strong hooks, yet submerges them in a serene, lulling flow. This Los Angeles-via-Chicago post-folk-rock quartet repeatedly upsets expectations: "Spider's House" adds a horn section not for punch but for languid background tootling, while the album's only cover, "The Orchids," is a pretty ballad adopted not from some roots-music icon but from Psychic TV, a frequently abrasive 1980s psychedelic-industrial outfit.
Electronic noise and electric guitar do incite a few of these songs, notably the churning "A Chinese Actor." And, woven amid the old-timey timbres of fiddle and banjo, there are loops, synths and sonic treatments that provide a ghostly quality. Yet such standouts as "Burned by the Christians" and "Pink & Sour" rely primarily on Tim Rutili's voice and guitar, gently bolstered by vocal harmonies and the chattering of rattles, gourds and chimes. If the effect is a little blurry, that suits Rutili's impressionistic lyrics just fine. "Roots & Crowns" doesn't command attention, but it's a marvel of musical insinuation.
-- Mark Jenkins
Appearing Sunday at Iota with Brent Green.
