Dead Man's Bones: Dead Man's Bones (Anti/Shock)

 |   |  <1 min read

Dead Man's Bones: Buried in Water
Dead Man's Bones: Dead Man's Bones (Anti/Shock)

This will be an acquired taste but its release around Halloween is I suppose apt, especially if for you Halloween is a Serious Event and doesn't have a lot to do with buying a witches' hat or trick'n'treat.

A project for the actor Ryan Gosling and his mate Zach Shields, this is like a faux-spooky meltdown of a kitsch carnival House of Horrors, a small part of Tom Waits, a BBC sound effects record, drums like heartbeats, eerily distant voices, a children's choir and an intermediate school end-of-year production.

It is somewhat polished and although perhaps not as scary as they might think, it has a slightly unnerving quality (kids choirs can do that to you) and the Kurt Weill-styled ballads over old time piano are the highpoints.

The Fifties-styled My Body's a Zombie For You (with kids shouting the chorus) is kinda fun.

Nick Cave (or Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson come to that) will feel threatened by this, and I doubt that I will play it more than a couple of times after this.

But if a slightly disembodied and dark album with song titles like Buried in Water and Flowers Grow Out of My Grave sounds like what you've been waiting for (or you a teacher looking for a song idea for that last assembly), then here it is at last.

I like the line on the back cover though: "Never let a lack of talent get you down". 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Volcano Choir: Unmap (Jagjaguwar)

Volcano Choir: Unmap (Jagjaguwar)

This album was on repeat play while I was at my desk and after a few times through I thought it one of those projects where people just make a interesting noise but haven't actually got a tune that... > Read more

Cybiont: A Trilogy of Random Thoughts and Considerations (Cybiont)

Cybiont: A Trilogy of Random Thoughts and Considerations (Cybiont)

First let it be noted that this album by a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Northland is not an easy proposition, and nor does it give up its manic diversity that easily. The title... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

GUEST SONGWRITER CHRIS O'FLAHERTY tells of the journey to recording his debut album at 60

GUEST SONGWRITER CHRIS O'FLAHERTY tells of the journey to recording his debut album at 60

My earliest music memory is preparing for the primary school end of year concert with The Holy Faith nuns teaching us When Irish Eyes are Smiling. I was confused and a little ashamed when tears... > Read more

GEORGE HARRISON: BE HERE NOW photographs by BARRY FEINSTEIN

GEORGE HARRISON: BE HERE NOW photographs by BARRY FEINSTEIN

Anyone coming to this book – as this writer did – for a glimpse inside the late George Harrison's eccentric Friar Park home will be disappointed. Despite billed as American... > Read more