I Give A Crit-Fave A Listen

The Handsome Family are big with Greil Marcus. He's always praising their stuff. But I'm always skeptical about critic faves. Radiohead, Sleater Kinney, Magnetic Fields, where have I been and why don't I like their stuff. The Handsome Family are a crit fave that I've liked but haven't loved and their latest is called Last Days of Wonder (Carrot Top). The best parts of the album are the lyrics by Rennie Sparks, while Brett Sparks' vocals will still make you wonder if he's spoofing the alt-country genre, but I think he loves the stuff. This is their 7th album and maybe I should've had someone burn me a compilation of their previous material before diving in to their latest. But this achieves its purpose that good music should. Giving you an original sound from an original duo.