End of Love

At various points since its inception in 1991, Clem Snide has played gently winsome country music accompanied by a cello, noisy rock punctuated with a squawking saxophone, and sincere love ballads incorporating strings, horns, glockenspiels, and more. Bandleader Eef Barzelay has written songs about love, death, faith, fashion, and pop-cultural detritus--often simultaneously--with wry warmth and wordplay that never stoops to cleverness for cleverness’ sake. Five albums into a career that’s combined uncommon versatility with reassuring consistency, Barzelay and his bandmates return with End Of Love, an album that combines all of their best tendencies, mixing empathy and wit, rock and country, and keen insights on matters great and small.