Clem Snyde
End of Love
[Spin Art, 2005]
Clem Snide have been playing downbeat, countrified rock for over ten years now. End of Love is the band’s fifth full-length, and demonstrates an increasing maturity since their more chaotic days in Boston. With members hailing from both red and blue states in America, the band’s geographic diversity betrays country and indie-rock roots that gleefully coexist with vocalist Eef Barzelay’s confident, tinge-of-Lee-Ranaldo-sounding voice.
Arrangements follow the dense and varied approach made famous in alt-country by Lambchop, from the banjo and distorted guitar over country twang of “Jews for Jesus Blues” to the vibes gracing the tonal roots of “God Answers Back” and the strings highlighting “When We Become”. The lyrical focus of the album is a sense of uplifting melancholia and acceptance of the tragic pleasures in life, with relational context given priority over absolute emotional states. “Tiny European Cars”, for example, reminds us that Isaac Newton’s productivity-through-chastity – he died a virgin – might not betray the same loneliness of the recently brokenhearted. While this album might sound a little too safe for some of the scene’s more adventurous listeners, those waiting for the next good REM record (aka, keep waiting) should pick this one up.
MP3: Clem Snyde - Fill Me With Your Light
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