The Handsome Family – In The Air
Carrot Top 2000
Listen while reading:
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As you may have realized I’m quite excited with Through The Trees and so every following album must stand the comparison with this gorgeous record. And the first thing that is conspicuous listening to In The Air is that they decided to leave the “mysterious sounding” path and went on to another track. It could seem that they intended to make the whole thing a bit more of a sing along experience. This maybe sounds pejorative but isn’t meant this way because the title track is one of my all time favourite songs of them. It’s just that they varied their sound into something new and one could say it is another step forward but I’m not quiet this opinion for I see tracks like Lie Down, A Beautiful Thing or the uber haunting Poor, Poor Lenore and I know that they are all the same even though they sound more fresh and vital than ever. The difference in their sound may be a result of the immense application of the keyboards – they are more apparent and so they add another quality to the album. But even this seems not quite right. However, I must say that In The Air is a very good album but it plays in another category than Through The Trees – and not many other records are in this category I think. A good friend, Lutz, once told me (and he is not quite a fan of this music at all) that In The Air sounds like what you can call Schlager music – the fact that I remember this statement means that something true lies in it and I think it could be what I called sing along experience. Indeed they got some catchy lines and easy structures sometimes and therefore you might call it so – but if you do so, you should be aware of the whole musical context of the album. I’m not willing to accept such a point of view if it is meant to make fun of the music they make – but I could accept it if one referrs to the overall structure of it and the composition of the tracks. In the end I have the secret thought that Rennie and Brett had a little off-time writing In The Air but made the best of it. And if you ask me if this album is worth to be in the catalog of such a great band, the answer only can be: yes and dang yes!
