I’ve listened to quite a bit of Hem, and with a new cd just out, I’ve had the chance to analyze their sound over a few albums.

Rabbit Songs was remarkable in the peaceful grace it offered, with No Word From Tom offering only a slightly edgier feel. Think of a ‘Prarie Home Companion’ version of edgy.  Rabbit Songs is a superior album, the songs being structurally sound, more complete and whole.

The new addition, Funnel Cloud is heavily laden with orchestral overtones, and lacks some of the simpler charm of Rabbit Songs.  While this album is still simple in ideology, the trappings have become more fixed.  Funnel Cloud begins to make both a stride forward while providing an aural recall to their early influences of lullabies, long walks in the lengthening twilight, and Southern infusion.

The gems on this album are few, (”He Came to Meet Me”, “Not California”, “The Pills Stopped Working”) with the rest being merely forgettable, pleasant background music suitable to a summer day party or inoffensive work hold music.  While perhaps the cd does not deserve that harsh criticism, the earlier Rabbit Songs, and even No Word From Tom had more verve and life to hold them together.

All in all, an album worth borrowing from a friend before purchasing.

If you like:

Iron and Wine
Neko Case
Loretta Lynn

Take a listen.
Amazon Listing Click Here

(crossposted at atomsandideas)

By Christina Rossetti

Promise me no promises,
So will I not promise you:
Keep we both our liberties,
Never false and never true:
Let us hold the die uncast,
Free to come as free to go:
For I cannot know your past,
And of mine what can you know?

You, so warm, may once have been
Warmer towards another one:
I, so cold, may once have seen
Sunlight, once have felt the sun:
Who shall show us if it was
Thus indeed in time of old?
Fades the image from the glass,
And the fortune is not told.

If you promised, you might grieve
For lost liberty again:
If I promised, I believe
I should fret to break the chain.
Let us be the friends we were,
Nothing more but nothing less:
Many thrive on frugal fare
Who would perish of excess.