In praise of... The Natural Bridge

Always a favorite, sure, but when I pulled this out a few days back for the first time in a good while I was struck by how wonderfully it flows, how unforced yet profound and affecting it is. Hands down, it's the Silver Jews album that speaks to me most, free of tape-hiss rancor or the ravages of addiction or their aftermath. The glibness and joke peddling David Berman has on display have been roundly dismissed, but I think people miss the point: it's not ENTIRELY about the words or the simple country melodies, the performances and singing are a lot of the allure, this sort of wiped out, shell-shocked vibe communicated as the singer gazes deeply into your eyes, watching a projection playing on the back of your skull. Deserves more props than it gets.

Anyway, I won't say anything more until this thread gets rolling, except, like, FUCK BERMAN for putting "How To Rent A Room" at the start of this record because I wind up listening to it 5-6 times before moving forward.

READ THE METRO SECTION READ THE METRO SECTION READ THE METRO SECTION SEE MY NAME

Side note: a decade on ILX, and this is my first "in praise of" thread.

in praise of raymond cummings restraint

i came back to this record recently & loved it, too. some of the stray lines throughout all fit together, maybe like them all seeming wiped-out, like you say. there must be a spanish word for this feeling. the right to remain silent's their best instrumental, too. & pretty eyes doesn't even need any more words about it.

I stan hard for Pavement/Jicks but there are definitely days when Berman at his best hits some inner, hidden sweet spot waaaay harder

Yeah, that instrumental's pretty sweet; I wish they'd done more of those.

That instrumental's so good that I forget it's an instrumental. I don't feel that way about "Night Society", for example.

I haven't gotten deeply enough into this record. I always skip past Pet Politics and Black and Brown Blues for some reason. Still, it's a pretty phenomenal record. I like it slightly better than American Water. Dallas>Inside the Golden Days of Missing You>Ablemarle Station>The Frontier Index>Pretty Eyes is such a good run.

Look a horse, of course, gallops thru the desert light
I make such good time through sub-space when I dream all day and ride all night

See, "Pet Politics" is my favorite.

This album is amazing.

Adam was not the first man
Though the bible tells us so
There was one created before him
Whose name we do not know
He also lived in the garden
But he had no mouth or eyes
One day Adam came to kill him
And he died beneath these skies

I wanna wander through the night/like a figure in the distance even to my own eye

I actually remember where I bought this album when it came out (Soundgarden in Baltimore) and where I read SPIN's slam of it (rite aid in Chestertown, MD)

great album, and possibly the best album-opening line of any of the joos' wonderful album-opening lines

1. "No I don't really wanna die..." (<3 <3 <3)
2. "Where's the paper bag that holds the liquor?" (scene: SET)
3. "In 1984, I was hospitalized for approaching perfection..." (good but TRAGICALLY OVERRATED)
4. "When God was young..." (great song but takes a while to get going, musically and lyrically)
5. "What is not but could be if..." (haunts me, but doesn't do much more than that)

OTHER: "Hello my friends..." (as far as I'm concerned, "Trains Across the Sea" is the actual beginning of this album)

I need to relisten to Tanglewood Numbers, it's been waaaayyy too long

OTM

TN is good but really hard for me to listen to ever

understandable, it's real gutpunch of an album

back on topic: some days I think "You're a tower without the bell" is the meanest thing you could possibly say to anyone. or at least the meanest line Berman ever put on record.