The Chrysler
Failures and Sparks
Galaxy Gramophone
It’s the melodica that does it. That unmistakable sound can liven up even the weakest musical stew, which, thankfully, Failures and Sparks is not. Much more fractured and shambolic than the pristine and fluid melancholy of their Swedish countrymen, The Chrysler’s take on freak folk tropes proves stronger in delivery than in theory. Many of the songs on here are emptied of the dewy humidity of San Francisco and replaced, appropriately enough, with the barren frigidity of a less temperate climate. Where your average folk band would charge ahead with finger-plucked leads throughout the verses, The Chrysler keeps the melody a step below a low bass hum to let the listener know there’s still life lurking beneath the icy surface. This makes the eruptions of sound and color all the more resplendent. Take “Along the Freefall,” which begins like the rumbling freight train of early Johnny Cash, before a carousel organ lifts the rhythm up on kewpie clouds. Furthering the band’s paradox is “Revolution #1,” which unabashedly pulses along like an elfin Neil Diamond. It’s The Chrysler’s “Cracklin’ Rosie.” Bizarrely, the bonus tracks included on the US edition of the disc are the strongest on here. Could it be because those five tracks feature the most prevalent use of the melodica? Yes, yes it could…
Parasol: http://www.parasol.com
