LAMBCHOP Aw C'mon / No You C'mon 2 x Vinyl LP Wagner K

	€		19
	$		22

LAMBCHOP

Aw C'mon / No You C'mon

Merge. 2004.

Excellenter Zustand. Höchstens 3 Mal gespielt. 2x Vinyl Gatefold LP von Kurt Wagners Band LAMBCHOP.

Das Country-Soul-Kammer-Pop-Ensemble aus Nashville beginnt das Jahr mit einem Paukenschlag! Nach dem letzten Werk, dem gefeierten Is A Woman, muss es gleich ein Doppelalbum sein, das Mastermind Kurt Wagner und seine vielköpfige Combo auf die Fangemeinde loslassen. Und auch wer, wie der Autor, normalerweise der Meinung ist, dass weniger oft mehr ist, darf den Hut vor Lambchop ziehen: Chapeau Mr. Wagner, Ihnen ist mit Aw C'mon/No You C'mon ein prachtvolles Album gelungen, ein Meisterwerk!

Wo man bei manchem Doppelalbum froh wäre, der Musiker/Künstler hätte sich lieber beschränkt, die Fülltitel gestrichen und stattdessen lieber ein ordentliches Einzelalbum gemacht, fällt hier keiner der 24 Songs oder Instrumentaltitel aus dem Rahmen. Wobei sich Lambchop schon auf das Wesentlich beschränkt haben, denn Ausgangsposition dieses Albums war, so Wagner, dass er in den letzten Jahren, jeweils über längere Perioden, einen kompletten Song am Tag geschrieben hat.

Aus einer Fülle von Songs wurden nun eben diese ausgewählt,die wiederum teilweise bereits als Soundtrackarbeit von Lambchop für eine Vertonung von F.W. Murnaus legendären Stummfilm Sunrise gedient hatten. Wagner beharrt darauf, dass beide Platten auch für sich alleine stehen könnten, wenngleich sich beide Werke nicht schlüssig trennen lassen. Denn Wagners Erklärung, Aw C'mon sei etwas düsterer als No You C'mon, letzteres verspielter und uptempo trifft es nicht so richtig.

Mit "Being Tyler", einem süffigen Instrumental mit reichlich Streichern (wunderbare Arrangements von Lloyd Barry) ziehen uns Lambchop in ihr neues Werk hinein, ehe Kurt Wagners sonore Stimme mit tiefem, sympathischen Timbre erstmals bei "Four Pounds In Two Days" zur Geltung kommt, ehe uns dieser Barry White der Indieszene mit einem der schönsten Titel des Doppelalbums, "Steve McQueen", beglückt. Sehr soulful. Wo die gesungenen Tracks nicht zuletzt durch Wagners wunderschöne Stimme leben, sind es die schon erwähnten, geschmackvollen Streicherarrangements, die begeistern und echt zwingende Instrumentals, wie die flotten "Jan. 24" und "Timothy B. Schmidt" oder dieses hymnische "The Producer", mit dem Lambchop das Doppelalbum beschließen.

Dazwischen lassen es Wagner und sein Dutzend Mitstreiter auch mal richtig krachen, wie bei "Nothing Adventurous Please" oder zeigen mit dem hübschen "About My Lighter", dass der Country zum Glück noch nicht ganz aus dem Ensemble gewichen ist. Exzellentes Doppelalbum!

A frequent criticism of the double album is that it would have made a better single album. Which is often true: To maintain any kind of consistency over the course of two full discs is a difficult undertaking. But, as with so many other things, Lambchop, Nashville's finest genreless collective, have managed to turn this unspoken rule firmly on its head, by releasing two separate LPs that by all rights should be one double album. Aw C'mon and No You C'mon, released on the same day a la Tom Waits' Alice and Blood Money, each sprang from the same sessions and writing project, and don't differ from each other in any meaningful way-- in fact, they feel more complete together than they do apart.

The story goes that Lambchop ringmaster Kurt Wagner challenged himself to write a song a day for several months, and then chose the cream of the crop for these records-- and a fine cream it is (although one does have to wonder how this strategy led to the inclusion of six instrumentals). It doesn't seem out of the question that Wagner may have chosen this simultaneous-double-release strategy simply for the fun of titling one in response to the other, and in an odd way, that naming convention works: No You C'mon feels like an escalation of the aesthetic of Aw C'mon, pushing just a little harder out of its creaky ballad box than its companion. Both records, however, feel like a logical progression away from the limited range of the band's last full-length, 2002's Is a Woman, an album whose icy, monotone piano balladry and spit-shine polish paled in comparison to the band's impressive back catalog of aggressively eclectic, wonderfully strange country/soul/noise/jazz/etc albums and EPs.

Most of the tempos aren't much quicker this time around-- only the instrumentals break much of a rhythmic sweat-- but the arrangements are a lot more varied, and the huge, fourteen-piece band (that's not even counting the string section) feels more engaged as an ensemble. Aw C'mon works best when the sun is down, when the elaborately arranged strings and downbeat R&B; of songs like "Nothing but a Blur from a Bullet Train" and "Steve McQueen" have their best chance to slowly unfurl and fill in the quiet of the night. "Women Help to Create the Kind of Men They Despise" sounds like it was recorded after beer #9, beginning as a sickly lounge tune and spilling further into leftfield from there, ultimately arriving at a Zappa-worthy choral bit just before staggering to a close. "I Haven't Heard a Word I've Said" is a tangle of wobbly, wah-drenched guitar, Wagner's ragged vocals and some smatterings of piano and other barely noticeable instrumentation.

No You C'mon initially promises to be the sunnier half of the pair, opening with the brisk instrumental "Sunrise", which, apart from a great string arrangement, also features a breathtaking pedal steel solo, one of the few appearances the instrument makes on either disc. But it's back into the guts of the nighttime from there, and the band goes much deeper into darkness this time around, flirting with their edgier days on a few of the ballads, and diving headlong into breakneck noiserock on "Nothing Adventurous Please". The guitars are muddy and abundant, spewing forth sheets of distortion to challenge Wagner's surprisingly snappy melody-- the song is actually reminiscent of some of Lambchop's earliest demos. Wagner sticks to his trademark mumble for the rest of the album, though, allowing the impassive guitars on "Low Ambition" and the swirling strings of "There's Still Time" to do most of the musical talking.

An hour and a half after the first disc began, "The Producer" closes things with a rousing instrumental full of melodic piano, twangy guitars and breezy rhythms, essentially bringing things full circle, and it's clear that Lambchop have regained some of the form they once had. Certainly, they've rediscovered their broad range and proud, sleeve-worn strangeness, and it shows in subtle ways, from the Brazilian shuffle of "The Gusher" to the alternate universe country doo-wop of "Shang a Dang Dang". To say one of these albums is better than the other is basically beside the point-- anyone who buys one will certainly want the other, and both are fairly comparable as far as quality is concerned, anyway. There are better routes into this band's strange world-- namely Thriller, How I Quit Smoking, What Another Man Spills and Hank-- but Aw C'mon and No You C'mon are each worthy albums in their own right and deserve to be heard. Welcome back, Lambchop.

Privatauktion, ergo keine Rücknahme. Wenn Sie die Platte nicht abholen können, kann ich Sie auch für 4,90 Euro versenden. Bitte bieten Sie nur wenn Sie damit einverstanden sind. Vielen Dank und viel Spaß beim Bieten. LG spiderland77