Jews & Christians: Music in Mediaeval Spain [Import]

1. Des Oge Mais Quer'eu Trobar

2. Ah El Novio No Quere Dinero

3. Noches Buenas Noches Claras

4. De Santa Maria Sinal Qual Xe Quer

5. Ondas Do Mar De Vigo-Mia Yrmana Fremosa

6. Propinan De Melyor

7. El Rey Que Mucho Madruga

8. Non Pode Prender

9. Ad Mortem Festinamus

10. Nani Nani

11. Se Muito Non Amamos

12. Pregoneros Van Y Vienen

13. Lavara Y Suspirava

14. Quen Na Virgen Groriosa

Tracks:

Random Rules
Smith & Jones Forever
Night Society
Federal Dust
People
Blue Arrangements
We Are Real
Send In The Clouds
Like Like The The The Death
Buckingham Rabbit
Honk If You're Lonely
The Wild Kindness

Amazon.com's Best of 1998

In the past the Silver Jews were commonly known--and often dismissed--as a Pavement side project. Not anymore. On American Water, D.C. Berman comes into his own as both a poet and a songwriter, effortlessly tossing off lines like the album-opening "In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection" while the band plays on, unimpressed. --Randy Silver

Amazon.com

"All my favorite singers couldn't sing," Dave Berman of the Silver Jews idiosyncratically speak-croons on "Blue Arrangements." To make the point hit hardest, he doesn't sing so well himself, but it's well-taken: from Lou Reed to Bob Dylan, John Cale to Palace, conventionally "good" singing isn't the most necessary element in effective storyteller-troubadour music. Berman is a prose poet by day and rocker by night, and his lazy-sounding, countrified, skeletal, yet invigorating music celebrates the union of word with sound in a manner simultaneously classic and seldom heard. It's hard not to like a record that begins with the line "In 1984 I was hospitalized for reaching perfection." Thankfully, Berman doesn't trade in the wordplay he and collaborator Steve Malkmus are so expert at. If only Pavement's Brighten the Corners were this relaxed, full of melodic hooks, and cagily profound. --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews:

Phenomonal Album.......2004-12-03

This is the ultimate in laid back folk rock. The guitars are powerful but relaxed, the lyrics actually mean something, and the vocals are hollow and bold. "Now you know my two middle names are wrong and right" is to this day my favorite song lyric. And there is plenty more included. Listening to this album is like eating a warm turkey sandwich at five in the morning on a winter day. It is filling, wildly impressive, and truly one of the best albums I own. Plus, you really can't beat a name like Silver Jews. Who wouldn't want to add a band name like that to their album collection?

how can........2004-09-22

This album is just, nice. And down to earth. Very simplistic, at best.

Berman's poetic lyrics outshine Malkmus and his wails.

Frontier Index.......2004-08-31

David Berman is an amazing artist that maintains a really low profile. He's never really been in any spot light, but yet for a 7 year stretch he put out some really amazing stuff. All three of the first Silver Jews albums are worth owning along with his book. Anyway, this album finds David Berman teaming up with college friend and Pavement member Steve Malkmus again. This album is very loose and breazy with a sort of Pavement meets Bob Dylan feel. This album definitely ranks up there with either of the albums Pavement put out after Wowee Zowee, and is far better than 90% of the indie rock I hear coming out anymore. I also think that Steve Malkmus played some incredible guitar on this album, and if you hear it you'll see that he has a more restrained approach on this album. I wish these two would work together more often because the results are often amazing.

top shelf.......2004-06-21

one of the very best records of the last few years.

Take a Road Trip With Berman & Co.......2004-05-22

Like many people, I got into the Jews as a Pavement fan - this was the first Silver Jews album I ever bought, and mostly chose it for the Malkmus influence. Many people I've talked to about the CD who bought it the same way found it hard to get into at first ... it slowly drifted into the back of my CD collection ...

But after giving American Water a serious listen one day, I realized how amazing it is. Not that American Water needs a "serious" listen - it's a perfect CD for all occasions, from the sitting and reading on a rainy night to drinking lemonade with your friends ... American Water is essentially a perfect album because you can put as much or as little effort into it as you want. You can listen to it with full attention and pour over the different layers of pop, alt, and classic county, or use it as the vague but awesomely present background to the aforementioned road trip.

Each listen brings out something different to notice, from the "Smith & Jones" and "Random Rules" fixations from the first listens to the end of the album, where you discover later gems like "Honk if You're Lonely Tonight." David Berman is an incredible poet (see his book, Actual Air), and American Water is like the best of Actual Air set to the best of Wilco (with vague Pavement elements) ... which adds up to, of course, the best someone can ask for in a CD.

Tanglewood Numbers
Average customer rating:

Love it to the Max!

very good very quickly

I Saw God's Shadow on this World

It won't get more profound

Welcome back, old friend.

Tanglewood Numbers
Silver Jews
Manufacturer: Drag City
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000AGL1G6
Release Date: 2005-10-18

Tracks:

Punks In the Beerlight
Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed
K-Hole
Animal Shapes
I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You
How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down
The Poor The Fair and the Good
Sleeping is the Only Love
The Farmer's Hotel
There Is a Place

Amazon.com

The first Silver Jews album in four years is a triumph with its throwback '80s-synth ear-candy keyboards, slack guitars, and a sublime hi-fi sound that only a former lo-fi band can get. Breaking the silence, the indie-rock star-studded band (Malkmus and Nastanovich rejoin, the 'Bonnie' Prince, as well as refugees from the Jesus Lizard and Papa M ) play fearless off-center rock rooted in Nashville, reminiscent of both Vic Chestnut's realism and Giant Sand's recent innovations. Not to mention that David Berman is a poet, so each song is dense with imagery, the whole record effectively telling a ten-part, 40-minute story that is partly funny, always honest, and often dark. Witness Berman exploring overcoming addiction, ("closed sign swinging in the liquor store" "later I come to find/life is sweeter than Jewish wine") the complete despair that lead to his suicide attempt, "There is a place past the blues I never want to see again" on "There Is a Place," and a uniquely American desolation, "I've been working at the airport bar/it's like Christmas in a submarine" on "Getting Back into Getting Back into You." Fortunately, the Jews sound is big enough to contain Berman's lyrical shadows, and this juxtaposition of opposite elements (happy-sounding rock and introspective lyrics) results in a record that is wholly satisfying: not too overwrought and never self-assuredly slick. --Gabi Knight

There's Plenty More Silver Jews Where This Came From

Actual Air by David Berman
The Natural Bridge
Starlite Walker

Bright Flight a>
American Water
Tennesee (EP)