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| Twilight | 
 enlarge | Artist: The Handsome Family
Label: Carrot Top Records
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $10.68
You Save: $3.30 (24%)
New (7) Used (5) from $5.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 120066
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 789397002728
EAN: 0789397002728
ASIN: B00005OAI0
Release Date: October 2, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW Factory Sealed - Ready to be shipped within 24 hrs from California - Average 5 workdays delivery time - Excellent customer service - Buy with confidence!
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| Tracks:
| • | The Snow White Diner | | • | Passenger Pigeons | | • | A Dark Eye | | • | There Is A Sound | | • | All The TV's In Town | | • | Gravity | | • | Cold, Cold, Cold | | • | No One Fell Asleep Alone | | • | I Know You Are There | | • | Birds You Cannot See | | • | The White Dog | | • | So Long | | • | Peace In The Valley Once Again |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Set in a shadowy netherworld, Twilight reasserts the Handsome Family's position as modern-day descendants of the ancient country-folk surrealists gathered on Harry Smith's celebrated Anthology of American Folk Music. Rennie Sparks's songs are filled with animals ("Birds You Cannot See" and "White Dog") and natural images that are both carefree ("Peace in the Valley Once Again") and unnerving ("Snow White Diner"). The lyrics masterfully blend compassionate insight and a real sense of drama and tragedy with an eye for detail and humorous asides. Brett's vocal croon and his background in both experimental avant-garde and Texas rockabilly insures that the duo's music continues to grow far beyond its country roots. The Handsome Family happily flout convention but their stark beauty still shines through--these are some of the strangest and most compelling songs in the warped but wonderful world of alternative country. --Gavin Martin
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Zippy says yippie! November 7, 2002
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I didn't like this the first time I listened to it. Now I can't stop. Each time it gets better. There are few songs anywhere that uses a theramin to such perfection as does "Gravity". "Birds You Cannot See" , what lyrics, I have known about these birds since my childhood, I am glad someone else knows about them, now I feel better. "Cold, Cold, Cold", great winter driving through the mountains tune. My kids hate "country music" not that this is, and they usually comment on what i play, but when I put "Twilight" on they become real quiet, I mean really quiet. Maybe they think I finally went around the bend. I even hear my youngest mumbling along with this CD. Must be onto something.
Jawdropping Beautiful Record October 5, 2001
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
The Handsome Family has succeeded again in improving on their enchanted craft. Rennie Sparks pens gorgeous poems filled with characters and situations as real and lonely as I've ever known. Husband Brett Sparks sings them with a warm, deep, baritone voice that would make George Jones blush. The beautiful irony of this warm/cold complement lingers with me long, long after each listen. The instrumentation on this record is spare and (again) warm, with precious little departure from their past triumphs. I suppose these words could be said of truly ANY Handsome Family record. As one who's familiar with them all I can say, with total astonishment, that this is a new height.
Surreal optimism? October 9, 2001
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
I don't know how anybody could mistake songs like The Snow White Diner or Dark Eye as remotely "optimistic". These are classic gloomy and twisted Handsome Family odes to the dark side...and they're great! This is another fine release by the Handsome's... ..if you like the other Handsome's discs, buy this one. It's classic dark and twisted stuff, just the way we like it.
 Twilight Time October 3, 2001
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
The Handsome Family consists of the husband and wife team of Brett and Rennie Sparks. Brett composes simple 'On Top Of Old Smokey-ish' music to go with Rennie's dark, often macabre poetry/lyrics. The result is startlingly original, but familiar-sounding at the same time--much more than the sum of its parts. Twilight, their 5th release, continues along the same vein, but takes more chances musically, expanding on the basic Handsome Family theme, with very good results. 'I Know You Are There' and 'Birds You Cannot See' are almost hymn-like in their majesty. Those two songs, plus 'No One Fell Asleep Alone' and 'Passenger Pigeons' take the formula to new levels of sophistication--they are quite astonishing. Brett's warm baritone is as smooth as ever. What keeps this release from being as satisfying as HF's previous effort, In The Air, is an air of normalcy on several songs that are rather weak. Not that the Sparks are selling out, but the piano-based 'There Is A Sound' is quite mainstream, not really a country balled at all, while 'All The TVs in Town' and 'So Long' don't quite measure up to the 4 songs mentioned above. The production, if anything, is almost too clean. Rennie's lyrics seem to have lost some of their menace as well, quirky--almost precious--for no apparent reason other than to be quirky. Non-sensical liner notes (An example: Send dead birds and chocolates to...) lead me to believe that perhaps the Sparks are not to be taken seriously, after all. Still, a fine release, one that will no doubt be on my 10 best of the year list.
Surreal optimism? October 9, 2001
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I don't know how anybody could mistake songs like The Snow White Diner or Dark Eye as remotely "optimistic". These are classic gloomy and twisted Handsome Family odes to the dark side...and they're great! This is another fine release by the Handsome's... ..if you like the other Handsome's discs, buy this one. It's classic dark and twisted stuff, just the way we like it.
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