Lambchop: Nixon

For years, Lambchop has held court at the far left of alt-country. Although the beautifully articulated steel guitar of Paul Niehaus and Kurt Wagner's gloomy poetry keep Lambchop abreast of their Uncle Tupelo-derivative contemporaries and honest to their Nashville roots, they cannot mute the obvious: Lambchop follows the country road less traveled. And if a 13-piece orchestra and country music were not already strange bedfellows (in a crowded bed), Nixon only muddles the issue.

On Thriller and What Another Man Spills (the band's previous two albums), Wagner carefully weaned himself off swirling country ballads in favor of a style which more successfully emphasized his multitude of talents. Nixon, though, is the fruition of Wagner's soulful dream. The album boasts guitars that are more Philadelphia than Arkadelphia and a weathered falsetto swagger that evokes Curtis Mayfield more than Hank Williams or Gram Parsons. The impact of this change is immediate, shifting the concentration to composition and arrangement from a default reliance on stylistic variety. As a result, songs like "Grumpus" and "What Else Could It Be?" divert attention from the band's collective unorthodoxy, instead showcasing each member and unit's virtuosity as well as Wagner's irresistible (if deprecating) charisma. With the aid of the Nashville String Machine, the band achieves a tight sound—one which, even in its relative simplicity, is fuller and richer than ever.

Although a departure, Nixon's core beauty nevertheless lies in its embrace of hindsight. Wagner's lyrics still reflect his close relationship with the playfully dismal Vic Chesnutt. On songs like "The Old Gold Shoe" and "The Distance from Her to There," the band proves that it understands "painful Southern bliss" more clearly than ever, weaving tales that make you cry as easily as songs that make you dance. With an attentiveness to both past and present, Nixon doesn't bring the South to Philadelphia—it brings Philadelphia to the South. (Merge)

—Thomas Kane

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