To those who remember Lambchop's early days as a gloriously off-kilter alt-country orchestra, Kurt Wagner's confident embrace of electronic music on 2016's FLOTUS and 2019's This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You) has been a rather puzzling chapter in their creative evolution. 2020's Trip isn't likely to lure anyone who misses the sound of 2000's Nixon or 2002's Is a Woman back to the fold, but it does represent a backwards glance to organic sounds and more familiar musical and lyrical territory. Trip is a collection of covers ...
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To those who remember Lambchop's early days as a gloriously off-kilter alt-country orchestra, Kurt Wagner's confident embrace of electronic music on 2016's FLOTUS and 2019's This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You) has been a rather puzzling chapter in their creative evolution. 2020's Trip isn't likely to lure anyone who misses the sound of 2000's Nixon or 2002's Is a Woman back to the fold, but it does represent a backwards glance to organic sounds and more familiar musical and lyrical territory. Trip is a collection of covers that Wagner and his band recorded rather than take the financially uncertain step of going out on tour. Each member of the group (Tony Crow, Matthew McCaughan, Paul Niehaus, Andy Stack, Matt Swanson, and Wagner) picked a song for them to perform (one of which is a previously unrecorded number by Yo La Tengo's James McNew), and they recorded each in a single day, with the musician who chose the tune leading the session. Consequently, Trip is rooted in the sound of a band playing in a room, which was not the case with the two LPs that preceded it, and puts the emphasis on Wagner's craggy, vividly expressive vocals and the way the group interacts around him. Trip is still short on outward country influences (outside of Niehaus' pedal steel guitar), and while the album opens with a heartfelt version of Wilco's "Reservations" that's both beautiful and abject, it also closes with an ambient eight-minute coda that will befuddle anyone hoping for clear forward momentum. That said, this music is emotionally eloquent in the way that comes as second nature to Wagner, his musicians display strong instrumental skills and a sense of adventure that suits the shape-shifting tone of the album, and some of the biggest surprises here reap the biggest rewards. "Shirley," first recorded the Cleveland proto-punk band Mirrors, starts as strong, elemental rock and shifts gears into a gentle, rueful paean to a lost love, and the solidly upbeat backing track for their interpretation of the Supremes' "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" makes for effective contrast with the wounded emotions of Wagner's vocals. Trip doesn't overlap much with Lambchop's original musical vision, but it finds the group picking up on the philosophy behind their early work, and it makes for a satisfying and affecting listening. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
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