Dead Man's Bones - s/t
It is the new year, finally. A time for change and moving on with these lives we lead. The sky is still white and grey and brown in trees and grass - winter is in full effect, cold and dead, it's swan song at least two months away.
Consisting of the ever-adorable and infinitely talented Ryan Gosling, his friend Zack Shields, and a children's choir, Dead Man's Bones recorded this eponymous debut back in 2009, but I never gave it a real chance until now. It's the perfect album for these death throes before the rebirth of spring.
Doo-wop and ghost stories mesh surprisingly well, turns out. This album is like a valium-fueled romance that takes place on the Haunted Mansion ride. The fact that I'm a sucker for choir vocals doesn't hurt either.
It's a quirky album; slow, haunting, catchy. You may feel like the world dissolves into black and white while you're listening to it. It's, without getting too pitchforky about this, an experience. It's a hazy adventure through a foggy voodoo swamp, with Gosling as your dark priest, and the Silverlake Children's Choir as the angels chanting in the distance.
It's not without it's faults of course, the first 3 (sometimes 4) tracks are painfully boring and repetitive, but once "My Body's a Zombie for You" starts up, it's smooth sailing from there. And please, don't be turned off to this just because the guy from The Notebook is it's mastermind - this isn't some Bruce Willis and the Accelerators, i'm-famous-so-here's-my-shitty-band deal, it's solid music from a truly creative person who just so happens to be gracing the cover of GQ this month.
-Thom
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