ZapTown

Dead Western
Suckle At The Supple Teats of Time
Exile On Mainstream
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Link: http://www.myspace.com/soundsofloveandspace

Suckle At The Supple Teats of Time works on so many dimensions that calling this an epic Americana/folk album makes about as much sense as fusing Serge Leon and Sam Peckinpah into one person. A masterwork landscape of strings and acoustic strumming with crystal clarity, you think that this would bring comfort amongst a desert of desolation, but “So Many Signs” is as unnerving as watching The Exorcist and knowing the spider walk stair scene is inevitable to experience. And when the song slows to a crawl but still keeps a pulse, you feel like you are in The English Patient and you just want it to die. But it doesn’t. It returns to form and keeps going. Five plus minutes feels like an eternity.

What Dead Western does and does so well is to transverse the boundaries of tradition and expression through stark surrealistic tendencies with hallucinatory effects. By the end of the song, you almost hate yourself for a reason you are not really sure of.

But if you continue listening, which I hope you do, you begin to understand the concept that denial becomes sympathy becomes acceptance that John Dickinson formulated during the British overabundant taxation on American colonies. History lesson aside, where I am going here is that the vocals are godawful. They are not in tune and they are sung with hideous vocal aperture. But after a while, you begin to enjoy them.

And I don’t know that after a few songs, we just accept it for what it is because in most other musical genres (Top 40 and pop, especially), I would have turned it off and argued for days about how such a song could be listenable.

Then again I don’t see “The Old Men Go” or “The Mockery” to break into the mainstream. And maybe because of that we can get by the cosmetics and look at this album for the artfullness it creates. And with that, it is my sympathy that becomes acceptance.