3 out of 5

Label: Touch and Go

Producer: Dirty Three

I’ll admit – I sort of lost touch with Dirty Three with ‘Apollo.’  I joined the party way late, with ‘Whatever You Love,’ and as has happened to me somewhat often, that meant that I formed a bond with a band based on an album that was something of a departure from their norm.  For D3, that was live recordings of buildups and freakouts.  I would slowly collect their other discs over the years and appreciate them, but I was glad I’d started with ‘Whatever,’ which is still such a powerfully sad and ponderous album to my ears, a nice counter to the skittering sense of danger that creeps into their most intense tracks on earlier albums.  I’m not sure what differed to me about Apollo, exactly.  Something about the artwork tipped me off to a different vibe, I guess, and it just never struck me in the way their earlier albums had.  And then ‘Cinder…’ with its 4 minute tracks and, hrm, vocals.  We’re supportive of bands who are in it for the long run evolving, of course, but I bought ‘Cinder,’ listened to it, and the fact that I can’t tell you if it made any impact suggests that it didn’t.  Re-listening to it now, I appreciate the glowing allmusic review that talks about the band constantly finding new ways to express themselves and blah blah, but instead, I hear very NPR friendly tracks – none of that danger, and only rare spots of emotion – and songs that only begin to find themselves before the group moves on to the next track.  The vocals are actually just one of the scattered extra components of the disc, which adds touches of organ and mandolin and such, and it all acts in the same way: distraction.  There are tracks that harken to some of that mystery I fell in love with on ‘Whatever’ – such as ‘Too Soon, Too Late,’ – and then at some point some layered synths or something will trickle into the background, and for some reason, instead of it enriching the sound, it just stifles some of the organic feel.

I haven’t listened to Dirty Three in years, I’m sorry to say, prior to re-experiencing this album, so I really don’t think its viewed through so much bias anymore.  Which is why it’s three stars  – it’s a perfectly pleasant listen, no real wasted tracks, just super standard ones.  And those moments where the group either lets loose (‘Doris,’ ‘The Zither Player’) or lets it wander (‘Ember’) are flashes of… something… that bring you back in line for a few more songs, and make you hear these compositions somewhat in the light of that allmusic review – experimentations by incredibly talented musicians who’ve formed a solid playing relationship… The difference being that while I appreciate that the men of D3, now older, now, perhaps, more creaky of joint, aren’t trying to force old magic upon us, the ‘experiment’ seems to be a perfunctory one – get together, find a groove, hit record.  Not really a new feeling so much as seeing if they can still play, which they can.

Your parents will like it, and if they’re ‘cool’, they’ll praise those flashes without having any clue that they’re only glimpses of the emotional heights and depths to which the group was once able to push itself.