Dan DaranciangThe Silver Jews
“Tanglewood Numbers”
Bottom Line: Whimsical troubadour’s lyrics soar when the music rocks.
Songs to download: “Animal Shapes,” “Punks in the Beerlight”
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
It’s hard to believe it has been over 10 years since “Starlite Walker,” when poet-singer David Berman first introduced his uniquely whimsical, depressing and intelligent brand of songwriting in the guise of the Silver Jews. On that album, Berman sang of an adventure in a house in New Orleans – “Not the house you heard about, I’m talking about another house.” On Berman’s new album, “Tanglewood Numbers,” his quirky narratives return: still weird, still offputting and still strangely lovely.
The themes, per usual for Berman, are sprawling and often vague. Still, there is a faint whiff of ironic hope that graces the album. In the opening track, “Punks in the Beerlight,” Berman’s monotonic bass quickly delivers a lyrical and musical miracle, as the chorus builds up a repeated succession of “I love you to the max!….etc.” The wryness of such a lyric, though, is not completely allowed to drown in its irony. In the following lyric, a female vocal – his wife, Cassie Berman – sings, “If it gets really really bad,” before Berman responds touchingly with, “Let’s not kid ourselves, it gets really really bad.”
The album’s lyrical majesty is accompanied by a few rocking humdingers. The rockabilly inspired “Animal Shapes” includes a toe-tapping rhythm guitar part. The sweet “How Can I Love You (If You Won’t Lie Down),” meanwhile, features cutesy call-and-response harmonies between the Bermans. All in all, it will be these tracks, rather than his sprawling narrative ones, like the seven-minute “The Farmer’s Hotel,” that will stand out. The Silver Jews are best when they pack a heavy punch in their sparse frame. On “Tanglewood Numbers,” they do not quite deliver the thematic or musical knockout as on “Walker” or “American Water.” Fortunately for fans of the Silver Jews, however, just about anything David Berman touches turns to gold.