Bill Callahan’s newest album, Apocalypse, has come out.
Finally given it the time and, I must say, it is ravishing. The first song, “Drover,” is one of his finest & most piercing:
Bill Callahan – “Drover”
Apocalypse is much more stripped and ragged than Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, which seems necessary. To go bigger, more into the strings and orchestration, would have been too much. The purely stripped had been perfected in A River Ain’t Too Much to Love (his last album under the Smog moniker). There needed to be some pick-scrapes and distortion. And flute.
“America!” is a track that has been tricky for me. Earnestness in someone so usually coy and reserved…thoughts still swarming.
Album – all-together – wonderful. It’s great to see that his lyrics & ability hasn’t failed. When one is such a brilliant lyricist, there usually comes a point when they depart greatly (Aaron Weiss) or dribble miserably (Leonard Cohen). Bill Callahan continues surely & strongly.
The New York Times had a great interview with Bill. He’s difficult in an interview, so it’s great when you find one worthwhile. Bought tickets to see him in Boston in July. He did a reading for Letters to Emma Bowlcut a couple months back at a bookshop in Brooklyn. Weird interaction. That book, by the way, is worth checking out. It takes away the need of a dozen others. And that it is to belittle it.
Anyways.
I hope you are well. I just thought I should give you a heads-up.
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