Beachwood Sparks
Make the Cowboy Robots Cry (Sub Pop)
by Brian Varney
An eccentric cousin to last year’s Once We Were Trees, this six-song EP finds the band stepping farther away from Gram Parson’s Cosmic American Music template and into outer space (in a rocket driven by a pilot in a cowboy suit, no less). Far less song-based than its stellar predecessor, Make the Cowboy Robots Cry is nonetheless a bold step into the cosmos, a burst through the band’s complex web of influences out into freedom.
The real highpoint of this disc’s 28 or so minutes is “Ponce de Leon Blues,” a duet with someone named Mia Doi Todd (I hope hers is not a name that I as a music hipster and know-it-all am supposed to know) and probably the best thing yet to bear the band’s name. Another lengthy one, “Ponce,” evokes a long, slow, final slide down the water to where the river runs ashore. Maybe it’s not as sad as all that ’cause I can’t really make much sense of the lyrics (not that I tried especially hard), but whatever’s supposed to be going on, it’s happening very beautifully. And, as with “Drinkswater,” the beauty is in the details. This one may take a few spins to fully sink in, but it’s worth the effort.
(PO Box 20367 Seattle, WA 98102)