I've only listened to the first ten songs or so. I think your description of remembering bits and pieces is spot on--Bill's delivery can often be lullaby-ish and make you drift away and only the most striking images come through. i think this this is actually a positive and helps make his music more re-listenable; I am still uncovering turns of phrase from 10-year-old albums that I've never really ruminated on before.tragabigzanda wrote:Anyone else have more thoughts on this? I keep having this problem that's never before happened with a Callahan album: I'll put it on, it feels and sounds lovely, but I'll be damned if I can remember a bit of it once it's over. I'll recall little phrases here and there, but whole songs sort of drift in and out of my awareness to the point that nothing really sticks.
Something that strikes me about the new one that I was thinking about last night: the way Bill sings "family crest" is, for some reason, one of my favorite deliveries on any song from this year--just those two words! It's like his cadence imbues it with new layers. I want to listen to the record much, much more closely to pay attention to these little lyrical flourishes that come up more than once, because I have a feeling there's something there.