Well, no gin, no misbehaviour (except the mandatory foul language), Christ you’d be forgiven for thinking I’d sold out on you and actually grown up at last.  No fear of that actually, just a bit of liver protection.  We’re trying to guzzle just that little bit less midweek, and save the beer tokens for when we really need them, so it’s tea and slippers this time around.  In fact I thought I was being exceptionally tame until such time as I realised that I hadn’t reigned in the swearing one little bit.  Fuck, I thought to myself.

Thematically, erm, you’re on your own I’m afraid.  I’ve no real idea if you can think of anything that holds all these songs together as a coherent whole, but damned if I can.  There’s quite a bit of new stuff and quite a few stray songs that I didn’t know how to cover because I didn’t want to review the whole album, but there was a song or two that I liked.  You know what I mean.  And thirteen songs in just under an hour – fucking hell that’s efficient.

Toadcast #36 – The Domesticast

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01. Christian Williams – 30 Minutes (00.17)
02. Calexico – The News About William (05.03)
03. Crystal Stilts – Crippled Croon (07.42)
04. Glasvegas – Flowers & Fitba Tops (14.39)
05. Fishboy – Half Time at the Proper Name Spelling Bee (20.12)
06. From – One Spring Away (23.21)
07. Eef Barzelay – Make Another Tree (28.19)
08. Michael Zapruder – Ads For Feelings (34.23)
09. Okkervil River – Singer Songwriter (37.37)
10. Marc Farre – La Plaie et le Couteau (42.42)
11. Adam Balbo – Big Kid Now (48.14)
12. Christian Williams – Judas (50.24)
13. Micah P. Hinson – Throw the Stone (57.00)

I didn’t hear much of a peep out of you lot when I last reviewed Christian Williams’ stuff, but I really think you should be paying it more attention than that. It’s not just another dark country album in my increasingly large collection, this really is rather special.

Williams himself describes this as gothic prairie music, and that conjures the perfect impression of what you will hear. I don’t know about real prairies, being an ignorant Englander, nor their music, but I know what they look like, having spent a little time in central Canada as a child. The image of bleak emptiness they call to mind is perfectly encapsulated by the warm, resigned heartbreak of this music.

There’s a lot of folk in it, as well as what I would rather vaguely call Americana. It sounds incredibly old-fashioned, old enough that songs like the superb To The Trees even manage to remind me of something vaguely Celtic, and presumably a lot of the really old folk music from those parts came from the original Scottish, Irish and Dutch settlers*.

For such an archetypal album, there is rich variety in this as well. The pace ebbs and flows beautifully, and the whole thing is beautiful to listen to in one go, something you can say for far too few releases these days. I recommended his previous album, but I really recommend this. Lovely.

Christian Williams – To the Trees
Christian Williams – The Recluse Anna Brown
Christian Williams – 30 Minutes

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*Not that the Dutch are a Celtic nation, of course. And also, I really don’t know which nations were most responsible for settling the prairies, but I’m fairly certain these three were pretty well represented. If anyone wants to correct me or elaborate on this, feel absolutely free.

I have been slow to review this because it moves slowly, like honey. It’s rich and strong, equal parts old time American folk, and deep gothic country. Williams uses his music to deliver one dark narrative after another, the tales evoking Johnny Cash and Nick Cave’s fatalistic denouements*.

It never strays into twangy country territory, this, preferring a spare, somewhat desolate tone, with an air of old-fashioned forebearance in the face of grief.  The musical landscape is in many ways familiar, but it is the subtle swaying between genres, and the judicious variation of pace that keep things interesting.  Instead of wearing you down with misery, Williams seems adept at letting things ebb and flow just enough to keep you engaged.

This is another one of these albums that didn’t blow me off my feet to begin with – I basically thought ‘ah, more decent country-folk-noir’.  This may not be far from the truth, but it is nevertheless extremely well done, and the album as a whole is a very nurturing – satisfying in some enigmatic way that I can’t quite pin down.  I like this.

Christian Williams – The Sad Song of Sequin Island
Christian Williams – Upstairs

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*Yes, I know, a bit wanky, but it really seemed like the right word.  I do apologise.