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 Post subject: Year In Review: M. Ward - Post-War (11A)
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 2:33 am 
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Average Metacritic score 81 (29 reviews):

www.allmusic.com

M. Ward
Post-War (Merge)
US Release date: 22 August 2006
Rating: 90


by James Christopher Monger

Laconic California indie minstrel M. Ward's fifth offering is a thrift shop photo album filled with histories that may or may not have been, dust bowl carnival rides, and slices of sunlit Western Americana so thick that you need a broom to sweep up the bits that fall off of the knife. Ward makes records that sound like he just wandered in off the street with a few friends and hit the record button, but what would feel lazy and unfocused in less confident hands comes off like a tutorial in old-school songwriting and performance that hearkens back to the days of Hank Williams and Leadbelly if they had had access to a modern-day studio. Post-War is not only Ward's best effort yet, it's one of the best records of the year. While his distinctive half-second-delay drawl assumes its usual position as the ghostly broadcast from a more sepia-toned time, the production is far grander than on his previous outings. Opener "Poison Cup," sounding for what it's worth like a cross between the Walker Brothers' "Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" and an outtake from Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, kicks things off with sneaky keyboard strings that fade into the real deal, reaching elegiac heights by the diminutive track's end. A catchy cover of Daniel Johnston's "To Go Home" features guest vocalist Neko Case breathing fire into the choruses with her trademark howl, the rowdy "Requiem" sounds like a Tom Waits version of Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls," and the peerless "Magic Trick," with its brilliant refrain of "She's got one magic trick/just one and that's it/she disappears," kicks off a suite of tunes that snake their way through to the album's end like a shot of Apple Jack. Like early Pavement, Ward knows how to make sloppy sound succinct, and it's that magic mix of earnestness and apathy that makes Post-War the secret bounty that it is.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 2:42 am 
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it might be my least favorite of his albums, but fucking a its m. ward and he is just like the best musician there is.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 2:45 am 
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I think it's close to his best (given that I've mostly only listened to his last 3), and it'll probably be in my top 10. "To Go Home" is one of the best Daniel Johnston covers I've heard, not to mention one of my favorite songs from this year.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:03 am 
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Top 5 for me.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:05 am 
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thisotherkingdom Wrote:
Top 5 for me.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:38 am 
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top 3

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:44 am 
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Top 10 for me if this guy wasn't the catalyst for girly leaving me.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 5:18 am 
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My current number 1 although M. Craft, Jarvis or Stephen Yerkey might still pip it in the next couple of weeks.

Just a really strong album with no weak tracks. The kind I like.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 9:40 am 
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Drinky Wrote:
I think it's close to his best (given that I've mostly only listened to his last 3), and it'll probably be in my top 10. "To Go Home" is one of the best Daniel Johnston covers I've heard, not to mention one of my favorite songs from this year.


Is it just me or does it sound kinda like Wilco's "Shot In The Arm"?(not in a bad way or anything because yeah, great fucking song)

This is a really great album. My previous exposure to M. Ward was limited to a couple of tracks on comps. and a mix a friend made me but who's track names dont show up in iTunes :cry: .

Very possible Top 10.

Anyone wanna suggest what my next move should be with this guy?

Also, I think I saw a commercial with one oh his songs last night.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:10 am 
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I should get this.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:35 am 
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top 3


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:52 am 
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Might crack my top 5. I've been listening to it a lot more lately and really like it. I love the first half but feel it fades a little the second half. The only other M Ward I have is Transfiguration of Vincent and compared to that I'd say it's not quite as good but not significantly worse.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:11 am 
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I like this alot. Just outside my top tier of absolute favorites from the year, so it'll probably be somewhere around 7-10.

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I tried to find somebody of that sort that I could like that nobody else did - because everybody would adopt his group, and his group would be _it_; someone weird like Captain Beefheart. It's no different now - people trying to outdo ! each other in extremes. There are people who like X, and there are people who say X are wimps; they like Black Flag.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:44 am 
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Yail Bloor Wrote:
Anyone wanna suggest what my next move should be with this guy?


Yeah, same here. I know I listened to his last album a few years ago, but it never stuck with me.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:47 am 
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thisotherkingdom Wrote:
Yail Bloor Wrote:
Anyone wanna suggest what my next move should be with this guy?


Yeah, same here. I know I listened to his last album a few years ago, but it never stuck with me.


Probably Transfiguration of Vincent is my next favorite album by him.

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I tried to find somebody of that sort that I could like that nobody else did - because everybody would adopt his group, and his group would be _it_; someone weird like Captain Beefheart. It's no different now - people trying to outdo ! each other in extremes. There are people who like X, and there are people who say X are wimps; they like Black Flag.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:52 am 
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Old Kingfish Lee Wrote:
thisotherkingdom Wrote:
Yail Bloor Wrote:
Anyone wanna suggest what my next move should be with this guy?


Yeah, same here. I know I listened to his last album a few years ago, but it never stuck with me.


Probably Transfiguration of Vincent is my next favorite album by him.

The opener on this is amazing. I never really made it any further, and haven't bothered to seek this one out.

I think my "Top 20" is gonna be a "Top 9"

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Throughout his life, from childhood until death, he was beset by severe swings of mood. His depressions frequently encouraged, and were exacerbated by, his various vices. His character mixed a superficial Enlightenment sensibility for reason and taste with a genuine and somewhat Romantic love of the sublime and a propensity for occasionally puerile whimsy.
harry Wrote:
I understand that you, of all people, know this crisis and, in your own way, are working to address it. You, the madras-pantsed julip-sipping Southern cracker and me, the oldman hippie California fruit cake are brothers in the struggle to save our country.

FT Wrote:
LooGAR (the straw that stirs the drink)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:54 am 
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Listened to this on the way to work this morning...I think so far it's gotten lost for me with all the other stuff like Josh Ritter, Joseph Arthur, etc.

Will have to listen to it again when I'm not on public transportation -- the quiet moments are missed.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:56 am 
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I like it alot, easily top ten, but probably not as good as Transfiguration of Vincent for me.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:07 pm 
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Sen. TWO THUMBS LooGAR Wrote:
Old Kingfish Lee Wrote:
thisotherkingdom Wrote:
Yail Bloor Wrote:
Anyone wanna suggest what my next move should be with this guy?


Yeah, same here. I know I listened to his last album a few years ago, but it never stuck with me.


Probably Transfiguration of Vincent is my next favorite album by him.

The opener on this is amazing. I never really made it any further, and haven't bothered to seek this one out.

I think my "Top 20" is gonna be a "Top 9"


9? You really are a piece of trash.

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"To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss."


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:23 pm 
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A True Aristocrat of Freedom

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Yail Bloor Wrote:
Sen. TWO THUMBS LooGAR Wrote:
Old Kingfish Lee Wrote:
thisotherkingdom Wrote:
Yail Bloor Wrote:
Anyone wanna suggest what my next move should be with this guy?


Yeah, same here. I know I listened to his last album a few years ago, but it never stuck with me.


Probably Transfiguration of Vincent is my next favorite album by him.

The opener on this is amazing. I never really made it any further, and haven't bothered to seek this one out.

I think my "Top 20" is gonna be a "Top 9"


9? You really are a piece of trash.


That even seems like a strecth, unless I pad it with the Live MMJ and NY rekkids.

Some of us worked for a living this year, bucko.

_________________
Throughout his life, from childhood until death, he was beset by severe swings of mood. His depressions frequently encouraged, and were exacerbated by, his various vices. His character mixed a superficial Enlightenment sensibility for reason and taste with a genuine and somewhat Romantic love of the sublime and a propensity for occasionally puerile whimsy.
harry Wrote:
I understand that you, of all people, know this crisis and, in your own way, are working to address it. You, the madras-pantsed julip-sipping Southern cracker and me, the oldman hippie California fruit cake are brothers in the struggle to save our country.

FT Wrote:
LooGAR (the straw that stirs the drink)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:04 pm 
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it's got a shot at my #1...just a great record all the way through


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:04 pm 
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the best quality of his music is also the biggest detriment, imo -- that timeless, classic feel that fits right in on an A.M. radio-era gone-by. He branches out from that feel a little on this album and that's probably why it's my favorite of his yet.

Outskirts of my top 20, i think my #19 right now but with some climb to it yet.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:06 pm 
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Gayford R. Tincture

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Old Kingfish Lee Wrote:
thisotherkingdom Wrote:
Yail Bloor Wrote:
Anyone wanna suggest what my next move should be with this guy?


Yeah, same here. I know I listened to his last album a few years ago, but it never stuck with me.


Probably Transfiguration of Vincent is my next favorite album by him.


Yeah, this is good advice.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:41 pm 
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Whiskey Tango
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Sen. TWO THUMBS LooGAR Wrote:

Some of us worked for a living this year, bucko.


You may have worked, but you still found the time to post on this board probably 4,000 times and yet STILL only listened to 10 records?

Derris is hooking me up with some more m.ward. cuz he cool.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 1:45 pm 
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A True Aristocrat of Freedom

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Yail Bloor Wrote:
Sen. TWO THUMBS LooGAR Wrote:

Some of us worked for a living this year, bucko.


You may have worked, but you still found the time to post on this board probably 4,000 times and yet STILL only listened to 10 records?

Derris is hooking me up with some more m.ward. cuz he cool.


Oh, I LISTENED to a bunch more. But the need to her stuff like M. Ward or that Thom Yorke rekkid never even passed through my brain.

I don't need to hear everything, and if the cream rises to the top, I'll hear it. If not, no skin off my back :shrug:

_________________
Throughout his life, from childhood until death, he was beset by severe swings of mood. His depressions frequently encouraged, and were exacerbated by, his various vices. His character mixed a superficial Enlightenment sensibility for reason and taste with a genuine and somewhat Romantic love of the sublime and a propensity for occasionally puerile whimsy.
harry Wrote:
I understand that you, of all people, know this crisis and, in your own way, are working to address it. You, the madras-pantsed julip-sipping Southern cracker and me, the oldman hippie California fruit cake are brothers in the struggle to save our country.

FT Wrote:
LooGAR (the straw that stirs the drink)


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