Statements of Purpose
tallskinnykid | Lambertville, NJ United States | 08/28/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album, which I believe is the band's sophomore work, was my introduction to The House Band.
The tracks are even, and well-played. Some tunes are traditional, some quite new. All the lyrical songs are played in a soothing, contemplative down-tempo style, and many are mournful-sounding. The overarching theme of the music selected for the album is anti-war pieces; most poignant are the opener track, Walls of Troy, which speaks against war-hawk nations and national opinion, and the closer, Bonnie Light Horseman, which is the song of a woman whose man has been killed in retreat during the Boer War in South Africa.
The non-vocal tunes, liberally intermixed with lyric songs, are upbeat and very danceable (assuming you can jig!), and easily save the album from being uniformly depressing."