lambchops's Full Review: Blackberry Belle by The Twilight Singers
Blackberry Belle is balanced precariously on the edge between reality and fantasy and reason and madness. At the same time it is luscious and inviting it is also strange and foreboding. This odd, creative juxtaposition lends itself well to the album on the whole as well as to the eleven individual songs.
Greg Dulli, of Afghan Whigs notoriety, dreamt up The Twilight Singers in 1997. He even assembled a lineup—all while his primary band was without a contract and on temporary. After finishing a Twilight Singers album, the Afghan Whigs were rejuvenated by a new contract with Columbia and the side project was put on hold and that album never released as originally intended.
Not long thereafter, Dulli (thankfully) returned to his Twilight Singers material and remixed it. Later (2000) it was released. Twilight as Played By the Twilight Singers was largely ignored but when folks took notice it was snubbed for being pretentious and lackluster. Maybe that’s why the release of Blackberry Belle passed with very little fanfare and why it took until earlier this year for me to discover the album from months earlier.
Blackberry Belle is just one of those albums that speak to my heart. Plus, I have to admit that the title drew me in—it is very peculiar and artsy for a modern pop/rock album. That’s right—this is an amalgamation of pop/rock/alternative. It is intended to appeal to many people on many levels; a goal that is unquestionably met and goes well beyond what I would have hoped for much less expected.
The moment Martin Eden opens it is impossible not to realize the creative thrust of the album. It is tender, dark, and musically accessible. The arrangement of this song (and the other ten) is perfect not to mention Dulli’s dramatic throaty vocals. Martin Eden is not the best song, but it is a perfect start to what amounts to a nearly flawless album. Blackberry Belle is peppered with performances from the likes of Mark Lanegan, Petra Haden, guitarist Alvin Youngblood-Hart, and even Prince protégé Apollonia Kotero. Fortunate instead of sounding like a chaotic all star effort, it is cohesive and wonderful.
It is with Esta Noche that the album really takes shape. A delicate though richly textured song complete with a beeping phone, horns, and beautiful instrumentation it is one of the album’s standout tracks. Though I adore that song, I think Teenage Wristband is probably the most widely appealing. It is an incredible bleak dingy song wrapped up tightly within the constraints of pop/rock. The guitars are nearly “normal” as is the arrangement, but the lyrics tell an entirely other story.
St. Gregory is a striking, sparse, nearly acoustic track that doesn’t provide immediate gratification but after a few listens works it grinds itself into the listener’s veins. The Killer is similarly challenging, though the arrangement is more ambitious and the song much groovier (if you could ever call The Twilight Singers “groovy”) and wraps up with a glorious amount of orchestral energy.
Another high point of Blackberry Belle is Decatur St. which mixes the dark sensibility of the rest of the album with some modest amount of electronica. This ability for the album to cover so many bases but to still remain similar in theme and tone is what makes it such an impressive outing. The themes are all similar—The Twilight Singers and more specifically Dulli are darkly wry but also steeped in a wretchedly unsettling amount of nihilism. The album is on the surface beautiful, but delve just beneath that sparkling surface and you are swallowed up by the pitch black and suffocating soul of the actual songs.
Papillon is a fantastically appealing song with a mid-tempo pace and a lovely arrangement. It, like Teenage Wristband, should prove interesting to a pretty wide audience. But the near normalcy of that song is contrasted by the detached emotion of Follow You Down. I enjoy these dark, disconnected, bleak songs the most—they are what set the Twilight Singers apart from the rest of the musical world.
Blackberry Belle wraps up with a triptych of outstanding songs beginning with the jangly funk of Feathers through the evocative Fat City and capped off by the amazing Number Nine. That album ender is particularly wonderful. Starting with a church organ broken by cymbals and round electric guitars it is the perfect way to end the perfect album.
My only complaint about the disc is that it is rather dark. If you don’t “do” dark albums, then please avoid the Twilight Singers and Blackberry Belle. Whereas I sometimes feel that singers and bands sing about things they want to feel rather than what they actually feel, I completely believe Dulli’s vision. I believe that the dark world sans true sunlight and with little hope is his reality. Blackberry Belle is an impeccable album.
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Track Listing:
01. Martin Eden
02. Esta Noche
03. Teenage Wristband
04. St. Gregory
05. The Killer
06. Decatur St.
07. Papillon
08. Follow You Down
09. Feathers
10. Fat City (Slight Return)
11. Number Nine
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