..And This Is Our Music

2003 release from the San Francisco psychedelic-rock kids. Frontman Anton Newcombe's up to his old shenanigans, trying to keep the BJM sound spicy. "Newcombe invites in a few guest vocalists, shifts lyrical angles and indulges in enough orchestral cinematics to override his own ominous self-mythology and break through the clouds again and again. Bob your head to the driving 'When Jokers Attack,' or check the triumphant 'Geezers' for a slow dance with the dweller on the threshold. There're still plenty of crypto-depressing song titles such as 'A New Low In Getting High' and 'You Look Great When I'm Fucked Up,' but there's enough joy in this record to make the sadness mean something. And when this sort of sad sinks in, it ain't the self-pitying self-reproach you get from booze and Mark Eitzel; it's the hollowed-out melancholy you get when you realized you've traveled too far to get back to where you once belonged, and as much as you like it here and dig the view, you miss home this time of year, and like the man said, you ain't going back. That's the sort of thing the Brian Jonestown Massacre is good for." - Emerson Dameron / Dusted