In the Air - Dark Publications

Location: Home » music » General » In the Air

Similar Items:

•	Through the Trees
•	Singing Bones
•	Twilight
•	Last Days of Wonder
•	Milk and Scissors

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
Chicago's Handsome Family draws its inspiration from traditional murder ballads, but unlike the Carter Family, whose name they pun, Brett and Rennie Sparks do it out of a fascination with the macabre rather than a familiarity with it. In the Air, the couple's fourth album, chronicles a world full of death, snakes, dark highways, and sad milkmen. To the Sparkses (Rennie writes the lyrics; Brett sings them), this world isn't bleak or bizarre, it's beautiful--and vivid. Here a man isn't simply skinny, he's "thin as the bow of his black violin." And here, when William got killed, the murderer lingered and "watched as his blood ran through dead grass / Watched as the black ants crawled through his hands." And somehow, through Brett's sonorous baritone, Rennie's breathy melodica, and guest Andrew Bird's violin, even such violence seems ultimately peaceful. --Anders Smith-Lindall

Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

DropDead Gorgeous February 26, 2000
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

No words describe how beautiful this album plays. Hopeful, sombre, bright, dark, frigid and beautiful, horrifying, vicious, vibrant, velour covered with black tar and sun stained on, whatever. Brett and Rennie Sparks have created the first true lyrical and musical masterpiece of the new century, decade, god, the millenium. Picking up where "Through The Trees" left off, Brett's musical pallete takes on a slightly brighter mood this time around to add mask to Rennie's viciously vivid lyrics. What allow's for postive melancholic balance is Rennie's ability to tell oddly beautiful stories within the words of the song. "The Sad Milkman" may be the first great countrypopfolk song written this side of the new millenium. An alternative earlier version of this Sparks original also appears on Sally Timms recent 1999 Bloodshot gem, "Cowboy Sally's Twilight Laments...For Lost Buckaroos." For those seeking something very rewarding in the year 2000, start here. "In the Air" is drop dead gorgeous pop with a touch of everything rooted in traditional country and folk. Mmmm.

5 out of 5 stars

Beware Ye All Who Enter In April 20, 2000
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

'Through The Trees' should have warned us. Branches rustled without a breath of wind: song-birds fell silent and strange black clouds darkened the sun: I felt a chill run through my room but there was nowhere to run that did not suddenly appear touched with melancholy. Still, this could all have been an aberation. Maybe just a fluke coming together of two currents that for the brief duration of 13 unspeakeably beautiful, haunting songs, created something quite unique and terrible. However, 'In the Air'is like waking from the dream to find you are still dreaming. Heavens, the back cover of the CD case should have been sufficient warning to us alone! People, think carefully before buying these new songs. How much do you value your view on the world? How much beauty can you take. I met Rennie Sparks a few weeks ago after their gig in Edinburgh and asked her what happens to Poor Lenore (track 7) after the song. Lenore has been carried to the top of a dead tree (where the heartbroken go) by crows. This really mattered to me. At first Rennie denied knowing the end of the story. Then, picking up the desperate look in my eyes, took hold of my hand and said, 'Well, yes, maybe in the end she does get down from that tree'. This, and a set that had the audience shuddering and laughing in equal measure, left me so blissful that I floated from the theatre. For a few hours, I was fooled. A few hours remembering the tender way she cradled her autoharp, before the stark outline of a leafless tree against the night sky shook me back to the reality of the Handsomes lyrical word. Lenore doesn't make it down from that tree. She's there still; at least her ghost is, waiting to sing its sad lament to any traveller accidentally wandering down that dark, damp path. Her hair whispers in the wind as the snow begins to fall and her mouth, endlessly, fills with blood. The Handsome Family stand utterly alone in the world. Leave behind everything you thought you knew and lie down in the dark rolling sea. When you get to the bottom, they will kiss you to sleep. Thank you Rennie and Brett.

5 out of 5 stars

i love this stuff! April 8, 2000
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

Until 3 weeks ago I had never heard of the Handsome Family. Then I read a review in Magnet and Decided to investigate. When it arrived in the mail i don't know what I was expecting, but WOW! It blew me away! From the first listen I couldn't put it down. i took to work the next day, I work at a music store in a mall. All my co-workers were grooving, even the nu metal fans. its one of those records that you can't help but sing along to. I mean I never thought I could get into genuine country music. Well, I like old stuff like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Sr., and Willie Nelson. Thats what this is like. Classic country, but with a modern take on the lyrics. It still covers the basics like, I lost my woman (So Much Wine), and I'm hopeless (In the Air), but its just so darn catchy. I used it to drive the customers away at the end of the night so I could close the store. So if you don't have a wide musical palette stay away from this record. If you love mellow stuff, indie stuff or just are adventurous then you'll grow to love this record. i now have all their albums just can't get enough.

5 out of 5 stars

These guys are good! March 11, 2000
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Songs to sit on a screened-in porch with your gal and drink spiked lemonade by. This album has the feel of an endless summer evening full of sweat, mosquitos, and of course, blood. Timelessly haunting, lyrical and lovely. Spooky romance at its best.

5 out of 5 stars

Dark, Beautiful and Memorable October 9, 2000
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This newsest collection of songs by Rennie and Brett Sparks (aka. The Handsome Family) are some of the best yet. From the beautiful and peaceful album opener "Don't Be Scared" to the tension-filled "In The Air", from the sadly haunting "So Much Wine" to the Paranoia of "When That Helicopter Comes", these are some powerfully dark folk songs that stick with you for a long time after listening to them.

Brett's deep resonating baritone vocals sing the dark folk poetry written by his wife Rennie with mesmerizing clarity and power. This duo creates some of the best beautifully haunting music I have heard in a long time.

I've had the pleasure to see the Handsome's play live several times, and to meet the Sparks. They are no disappointment. They create beautiful music mixed with dark and twisted lyrics. But as they sing on "A Beautiful Thing"..."It's only natural to want to kill a beautiful thing", and they write stories that lay to rest all those hauntingly beautiful melodies of theirs.

Five stars...I'd give it more if I could tear some stars out of the sky...but I can't quite reach.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic

T-shirts, Posters

Pentagram T-shirts, bags, etc...

Gothic Posters