Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
All The Best (UK Version) [Import]
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition No1-10; Wagner: Meistersinger von Nürnberg WWV96
Music: Songs Of Love And Parting/Five Bardic Mysteries [2 on
Phuture That Never Happened [Import]
Amazon.com
There are a lot of requisites to cram into a Quasi review: the duo's members were once married, he plays with Elliott Smith (and sometimes vice-versa), she with Sleater-Kinney, etc. All were easily coverable in the paragraphs scribbled about former albums, as each new Quasi release seemed to have only slight key, rhythm, and mood variations to distinguish it from the last. The Sword of God, however, finds Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss creating an album that is to Quasi what Being There was to Wilco--a loving transmogrification, if you will, of sounds the band holds dear. Zeppelinesque organ, Buffalo Springfield guitars, the intro of the 1974 Genesis song "Watcher of the Skies" (played show-tunes style on keyboard and clarinet)--all are lovingly modified to reflect Quasi's seamless combination of goof-and-gloom-rock aesthetics before being built into the duo's most eclectic single album to date. And with music that explores the sunny side of their otherwise black humor (high in the mix of the anthemic "Rock and Roll Can Never Die," over a signature Rolling Stones guitar riff, is a rollicking bagpipe, for example), Quasi makes The Sword of God a perfect fit for listeners of all dispositions. --Sarah Sternau