albums of 2008 – 13 blues for thirteen moons

thee silver mt. zion memorial orchestra & tra-la-la band – 13 blues for thirteen moons (constellation)

this is the first asmz album to come with packaged with lyrics (in a nice little hymnal too), perhaps indicative of the unprecedented focus on frontman efrim menuck’s voice, and in general the first time the band has sounded so direct. it was due for a worldwide release on march 25th, but the kind people at constellation mailed it much earlier, just in time for my birthday in fact. for a whole month since that day, i listened to the album every night. for the first few listens, i struggled to get used to the unfamiliar guitar driven sound, but gradually, the entire album became part of my evening routine, with the harsher sounds i associated more with gy!be mingling with the world-weary strings that still feature so distinctly. and every night, i’d fall asleep to album closer blindblindblind, sometimes just after munuck reminds me “we want punks in the palace, cos punks got the loveliest dreams”. for some reason i can’t explain, i’ve bonded with this album like no other this year.

mp3: thee silver mt. zion – blindblindblind