'...gentle, strange and dark pop music....strikingly daring.'
-Punk Planet
'This is indie-rock not easily described.... Let's just say that this isn't like all the other indie bands out there. This is good.'
-Past and Present webzine
~
A little over four years since How To Move A Piano, Puritan follows up with Come Sit By The Lake Tonight, and the new album answers a question posed by the last: 'Can I Shimmy?' Yes, he can.
Where How To Move A Piano drifted softly in and out like fog, Come Sit By The Lake Tonight jangles its way across nine sturdy numbers which manage to straddle a fine line between soft, acoustic guitar rock and synthesized funk. Anchored by Will Moore’s dynamic co-production, Come Sit By The Lake Tonight brings Hamma’s vision of Puritan to new heights.
'Blackmail' sets the tone for the rest of the record: sweet art rock with a jazz tinge and Hamma’s charmingly half-sung/half-spoken vocals delivering some gorgeous lyrics ('I thought my heart would lighten if I left it in the sun...'). While he’s as poetically powerful as ever, on the new album, Hamma’s lines are at times transformed excitingly from a beat poet’s to a slam poet’s: 'I remember when you hit like a punk/Now you just wait for the easy chunk,' from 'The Chair.'
There’s one of those late 60s sci-fi synthesizers that runs prominently throughout the album which, in moments, turns Puritan into a kind of Aimee Mann starring as Dr. Who (you gotta hear it to believe it). On another spy note, 'Morning Hair' is private i. music circa 1940: the sound of cool cats in smoky bars with just a bit of tension over their pool sticks. Here, Hamma emerges as the lone silhouette beneath a street lamp outside, lighting his pipe in the swirling city smog.
There are still some lovely lullabies in the bunch. 'Sanguine Arms' picks up where Mazzy Star left off (with a hint of country twang to boot), and 'Expulsion' is a lilting song awaiting its campfire sing-along. But what makes Come Sit By The Lake Tonight shine is that while it’s pretty as ever, it’s also direct – music you can dream and snap along to all at once.
–Jojoboy
credits
released January 27, 2004
COME SIT BY THE LAKE TONIGHT
Played and sung by David Hamma
Will Moore: synthesizers, backing vocals, percussion, hand claps, chord organ, wah guitar, harmonica
Heidi Nelms: bass (1–5, 8), backing vocals, whistles, hand claps
Cory Brittain: drums (5, 6, 8, 9), percussion (5, 6), keyboards (9)
AJ Neitenbach: lap steel (4)
Kerry Tucker: alto saxophone (9)
This record would not have been possible without Will Moore
Grateful to everyone else who played...and those who helped: Jay Paxton, The Brittains, Sun LithoGraphic Arts, Jay & Joe Chilcote, Val & Kim Fernandez, Ariel Caroline, Tory Fiterre, Ayaka Umeda, Travis Rice, Jason Pomeroy, Juha, The Mole, Demune, Kanekoa, Requests Music, Manao Radio, Ed Smith, Chris Kidd, Biscuit, Shiner/Elliott, Bernard, Mom, Family, Friends...and especially Heidi.
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