How I Quit Smoking

With the band's second album, they perfect the sound introduced on their impressive 1994 debut I HOPE YOU'RE SITTING DOWN. The Lambchop sound is at once self-mocking and quietly intense, achieving the sort of dichotomy usually reserved for Leonard Cohen records. Lambchop had yet to incorporate the funky R&B influences that would come to the fore on THRILLER and WHAT ANOTHER MAN SPILLS. HOW I QUIT SMOKING is a more sedate affair, filled with hushed vocals, shimmering, reverb-drenched guitar and elegant string and horn lines that support Kurt Wagner's wry, often dark, lyrical observations. However quirky Wagner's vision and delivery there's still undeniable warmth to the sound, making HOW I QUIT SMOKING as undeniably pretty as it is subtly subversive.