Califone - Villagers

 

Califone's latest, Villagers, is Album of the Month in Uncut Magazine this month. That's worth taking note of because it's no exaggeration to say that Uncut Magazine very rarely get it wrong in this respect. Now there's a magazine that know its eggs.

Califone, (out of Chicago, Illiois, like so many of the best things), are a modest project that have been around the block any number of times. They're Indie in the best sense of the word, as in Independent, (something I imagine I've said before but humour me). They're possessed of the attention to life's small details, wry humour and musical chops. The important things. A recipe for listening pleasure.

There's lots of space in Villagers which is always the sign of a band who know what they're doing. A slight debt to Wilco particuarly but those are good people to be in debt to. They're certainly not in any hurry here so you sense immediately that you're in very safe hands.

Occasionally they meander into Jazzy interludes but mostly it's the vocals of Tim Rutili that anchor this. He's been powering his and his band's wheel for almost three decades now, and  by this stage of the name he's a master craftsman. A midfield dynamo in his late thirties powering forward after seventy minutes from deep, in a nil-nil deadlock, to power a shot from outside the area past the opposition goalkeeper's despairing dive. The ball landing in the bottom corner of the net to win the match. A Pirlo, a Modric for those who know and love the game.

I love listening to an album in its entirety. with time and space to appreciate it. A good album is like a good story, with plenty of scope for digression and wandering off the path and into the woods for a nosey, but also faithfulness to structural unity and overriding narrative objectives. Villagers is one of the best records I've heard this year. I would write more but I'm just getting to know it. This will do for the time being.