4 out of 5

Produced by: Nick Atkins (engineered by)

Label: Touch and Go

 Horse Stories is the Dirty Three album to push.  There’s a reason this was their breakout, and it’s heard as soon as 1000 Miles explodes into a fire of strings and heavy strums and drums: no longer coming across as a wandering set of improvisers, this is D3 channeling straight emotion as a cohesive unit.  The highs that burst out of the calm are epic, and rivet you to your seat for the proceeding, gorgeous (relative) lulls, which proves to be surprisingly “hooky” for the general somber sound of Warren Ellis’ restless violin.  The group’s production is spot on for this; while the overall master is sort of quiet, the “live” mix makes this exactly the kind of disc to crank up, to hear the cavernous echo of the plucks and get the rumbling hiss of the settling drum rolls.

If you want to explain to someone the Dirty Three sound, yes, it’s Horse Stories all the way.

…But…

 I’m not quite sold on it being their best album.  The horse rearing up as cover art and the way the disc lists between free running sprints of instrument pummeling and contemplative washes of slow and steady note tinkling definitely vibes as an experience: A wandering, explorative spirit, subject to the wiles of nature.  That story just doesn’t carry fully through for me whereas the narrative on later albums does.  So on the disc’s latter half, after the fantastic At The Bar – particularly the open ended Warren’s Lament – I lose Horse Stories’ thread.  The final few tracks are undeniably excellent (especially Horse), but they feel outside of the story that was initially being told.

This is sincerely a slight knock, and only noticeable because of how enrapturing the opening two thirds of the album are.  And I would still certainly maintain that if you’re going to own one D3 disc, this gives you the most instantly grabbing version.