What do you think of Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea?

I used to not be interested in it at all. I remembered hearing the first few chords of What Is Not But Could Be If and turning it off a few years ago. It was too polished, I didn't get it. Silver Jews were weird and their guitars were out of tune and their production was dirty, like it was smeared onto the tape.

But a few months ago, I listened again. And I haven't been able to stop. I love this record. Nearly every song is so well written and the cleaner production is pretty nice and fits the songs well. I think a remix might be cool, but honestly, it isn't too sterile sounding like I originally thought. The writing is incredible, better than Tanglewood Numbers, even though that album has some amazing songs.

What is Not is such a hopeful song, it brightens my day whenever I listen it, but it doesn't feel cheap. There's still that Berman melancholy ("family shadows all of this") though, and the chorus just feels amazing after the kind of clunky rhythm of the verses. It's like being set free. Pinkerton absolutely kills on the guitar across the record too, dude is amazing. That bright, echoing lead feels like seeing the sun after a long day inside. The focus on stories in the songs are really interesting too, Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer is a great song. I'm still trying to parse its meaning. Maybe it's about failures? Or people that don't belong, since bluegrass doesn't have drums? And Brick Butterfly is a no wave singer in a country band, which doesn't make sense. Great song, lots of humor. And Berman is funny on this record. San Fransisco BC cracks me up each time, so many funny lines:

"'You don't make enough to provide for me'/'what about that stuff that we "quote" believe?'"

"A patch was bare, I knew it wasn't new wave but human error"

"fist cuisine" etc.

Strange Victory, Strange Defeat is such a good song too. I like how it musically mirrors We Could Be Looking for the Same Thing, which is beautiful song. I not sure what's up with the squirrels being mentioned so often, though. Oh, and Part Barge has become one of my favorite Silver Jews songs. It's amazingly catchy, I love Cassie's vocal part, and the lyrics are just the best. "Like I said they say, nothing stops a party barge!"

This is a messy post I wrote while bored in class, so forgive the scattershot plotting of it. What do you think of Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea?