So after falling for the hype c/o Berlin U-Bahn ads and allmusic, I decided I couldn't wait for its stateside release and splurged on Damaged, the latest album by country-folk weirdo Kurt Wagner and his backing band. I have only heard parts of Is A Women and Nixon since then, but from what I can tell the earlier material is slightly more streamlined than any of the tracks on Damaged. Still, I have not heard anything better and more complete this year than Wagner's latest. One major break from Lambchop's past releases, by a completely different vocal approach. With a voice ravaged by mouth surgery and a cancer scare, you can almost hear the cyst reverberate through his vocals, as singing is no longer so easy. In the first and signature track, "Paperback Bible" it's impossible to imagine him singing for all tracks, let alone the end of the first one. Yet, through an act of sheer will he manages to overcome his limitations and produce a fantastic vocal performance through brillaint, unassuming lyrics and solid-restraint singing.The album is a classic for more than just the vocals. The production is a revelation, and keyboards, synths, scratchy tapes and raw guitars are always hinted at, but always in the subconscious, never fully dominating. The album's mood follows a classic thesis antithesis-resolution-structure. A deep despair drones hopelessly at the beginning, but is followed by a chance for redemption towards the second act, with the solution lying somewhere in between. While "Paperback Bible" is the standout on the album, "The Decline of Country and Western Civilization" is a perfect kiss-off closer in pure Lampchop style. It's here that Wagner's vocals become transcendent, as he dismisses everyone from Pitchfork to preachers with the phrase "damn their looking ugly to me" with a delivery paging Captain Beefheart. While this approach is comparable to John Lennon's with Plastic Ono Band, "The Decline of Country", as with all the others on Damaged, is distinctly Wagner's. Simply put, this is the most unique, challenging, and convention-defying album popular music has had in quite some time, and proof that the album, although a dying medium, is the most fully realized format for popular music's artistic expression.
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