Lambchop: Damaged - Album Review

Some time ago I was introduced to this bands music. The first Album I got was Nixon which I still find brilliant.

I recently went to see them at Shepherd's Bush Empire.

To be honest I was somewhat disappointed by this album. Not because of the quality of the songs, but simply the variety. In the main, the songs are very slow, sedate tunes with Kurt Wagner's low voice over them.

The opening track "Paperback bible" is a slow song which is pretty much the contents of a local paper's "for sale section". It is an interesting topic for a song and quite something that Kurt holds it together despite it being a banal subject.

The atmospheric lead guitar and particularly the strings section create the mood perfectly. I just find it a shame that the mood is the same throughout the album. With Nixon, there were a few tracks which were more upbeat and faster. Up with People was a catchy number that that lifts it up above the doldrums.

While I'm sure there will be some Lambchop fans who will simply fall in love with this in time, for me it's simply too much of the same slow tunes with little to lift it up. Each song alone is really something to behold. Just a shame they were of the same ilk throughout the album.

I would suggest that you only get this album if you are a die-heard Lambchop fan, not as a first introduction to their work.


Lambchop website: www.lambchop.net/
Myspace Page:
www.myspace.com/lambchopisaband