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Sawdust
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Sawdust
Current price: $13.99
Barnes and Noble
Sawdust
Current price: $13.99
Size: CD
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Biding time at a juncture when they don't necessarily need to,
released the odds-n-sods collection
in November 2007, a mere 13 months after their second album,
. If the title suggests that the group is digging further into a preposterous fixation on faux Americana, this grab bag of B-sides, new songs, covers, stray tracks, and re-recordings feels more like a sop to the fans who found the
worship hard to stomach. There's not as much
here but the ghost of
still lingers, particularly in the clatter of the echoing
guitars, but that's married to
' studied new wave moves, which is a better fit for that sweeping sound anyway. Better fit doesn't necessarily mean a perfect fit, however -- the return to
' stylish throb only emphasizes their scattershot songwriting, where they can get elements right but they can't quite tie it all together. Tellingly, the best moments are leftovers from
-- whether it's the cool glam groove of the leftover
or
which does the cod-Americana better than
-- but too much of the newer stuff clatters around pointlessly, all pomp and no circumstance. This goes double for the directionless
duet
which plays as if
decided to have
sing on
, then it goes triple for a stupifyingly silly
where
seem like kids in cowboy hats even more than they did when they were kicking around the desert outskirts of Vegas. Covers don't treat
well at all, as they reveal how hammy
is at his core (swapping
's sly, dry delivery for
' community theater bluster robs
of its delicate beauty). When
is in his natural setting, supported by glistening waves of keyboards and guitars that ring like synths, that ridiculous theatricality can be a bit of a guilty pleasure, and
does indeed contain some moments of grand pomp, but its scattershot nature works against the band as it winds up emphasizing the lingering question from
, that
have a hell of a lot of ideas but they just don't know what the hell to do with them. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine