Search - Giant Sand :: Chore of Enchantment

To Echo "A Christmas Story" -- 4 Plus, Plus, Plus, Plus

James Carragher | New York | 02/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There is no pigeon hole that works for Chore of Enchantment. Despite the back cover CD case photo, it is a galaxy away from bubby country. Nor is it a whole lot closer to alt-country, not with snatches of opera and instruments that -- on the Dusted cut alone -- include mellotron, cello, sitar guitar and a 78 rpm crackling sound. Chief Sand man Howie Gelb offers vocals that are more spoken word than sung, a unipolar Leonard Cohen, perhaps. Or, as he sings on Satellite, "you can get Leonard Nimoy/To play the part of Leonard Cohen." And then there are those lyrics: "Dusted's home is a hamster wheel...", or "you make your way here/With some extra wide turns...." or "the spine waits to feel the shiver/But right now deals with a great lack of it." And then, out of the blue, come a fully realized yearning love song, Astonish; a classic stay or move on snapshot, Dirty from the Rain; and Way to End the Day, a lament to the daily grind and the daily glory.In the end, I really don't know what to make of Chore of Enchantment, except this -- every time I play it I think, "How come I haven't listened to this for a while?" and then do so constantly for weeks."

May be Giant Sand's best album

John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 11/29/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Old Pueblo music guru Howie Gelb has crafted a series of intriguing, cutting-edge albums with his group Giant Sand; "Chore of Enchantment" may be his best. It's hard to classify his music, but it does come across as a beguiling mixture of country and classic 1960s rock and roll (Think of Brian Wilson for example, but searching for the beauty of the Sonoran desert instead of nubile Californian girls.). When I lived in Tucson, Giant Sand was the hidden secret that had been lurking around, almost unnoticed for years, while The Mollys soared, trekked out from the Old Pueblo and conquered the world with their beguiling mixture of Mexican Norteno music, Celtic, bluegrass, country, folk and rock and roll. Without question both Giant Sand and The Mollys were among the best reasons why Tucson became a leading center of progressive, cutting edge country/folk/rock and roll; a position which Tucson still occupies thanks to Giant Sand's popular offshoot, Calexico. If you're a diehard fan of country and bluegrass music from Brooklyn, NY who thinks that Brooklyn is now the next new thing in bluegrass, country and folk music, then I strongly advise you to hear the excellent albums made by Tucson's best bands, and if you are objective, then you'll agree with me that Tucson remains light years ahead of anything being crafted now by musicians in Brooklyn's still nascent bluegrass/country/folk music scene."

Not country music

B. E Jackson | Pennsylvania | 11/26/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"People seem to think this is country music, but it's not. Well, maybe it is sometimes. I believe anyone with a creative taste for music will find something to like about this album. It's not ordinary music, and it's something you will probably treasure for a long time."