(Post-Rock, Chamber Pop) Lambchop - Damaged (Limited 2-CD edition) - 2006, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

01. Paperback Bible 7:48
02. Prepared (2) 6:30
03. The Rise and Fall of the Letter P 3:36
04. A Day Without Glasses 4:11
05. Beers Before the Barbican 4:51
06. I Would Have Waited Here All Day 4:20
07. Crackers 4:11
08. Fear 5:00
09. Short 3:48
10. The Decline of Country and Western Civilization 4:36
All songs by Kurt Wagner, except for #02, by Kurt Wagner and Tony Crow

01. Pre 5:35
02. Fear (re) 4:30
03. Decline 4:44
04. Paperback Bible (with drums) 6:04
All songs by Kurt Wagner

[code][/code]

Touted as "Nashville's most f*cked-up country band" by their label Merge Records, Lambchop was arguably the most consistently brilliant and unique American group to emerge during the 1990s. Their unclassifiable hybrid of country, soul, jazz, and avant-garde noise seemed at one time or another to drink from every conceivable tributary of contemporary music, its Baroque beauty all held together by the surreal lyrical wit and droll vocal presence of frontman Kurt Wagner. Although Lambchop's ever-rotating roster would later expand to over a dozen members, the group formed in 1986 as a simple three-piece teaming Wagner, guitarist Jim Watkins, and bassist Marc Trovillion, former high school classmates already ten years removed from the educational system. Originally dubbed Posterchild, the trio made its earliest recordings in Trovillion's bedroom, self-releasing a series of cassettes with titles like "I'm F*cking Your Daughter." In time, the lineup began to grow and the band regularly performed live in and around the Nashville area, often at the area record shop, Lucy's (not coincidentally owned by Wagner's wife, Mary).
In 1992, Posterchild -- now consisting of Wagner, Trovillion, guitarist Bill Killbrew, clarinetist Jonathan Marx, multi-instrumentalist Scott C. Chase, drummer Steve Goodhue, and percussionist Allen Lowery -- released An Open Fresca + A Moist Towlette, a split single with friends Crop Circle Hoax. The 7" brought the group to the attention of entertainment lawyer George Regis, who issued cease-and-desist orders on behalf of his clients, the noise pop band Poster Children. After rejecting the names REN, Pinnacles of Cream, and Turd Goes Back, the band settled on Lambchop, added vocalist/saxophonist Deanna Varagona, steel guitarist Paul Niehaus, and organist John Delworth, and signed to Merge to release the 1993 single "Nine." Their debut LP, I Hope You're Sitting Down (aka Jack's Tulips), followed a year later. In many ways, this album would be the most conventional Lambchop record. Its Nashville origins and torch-and-twang ambience would saddle the band with the increasingly erroneous alt-country tag, although Wagner's Lou Reed-like vocals and bizarre narrative conceits -- in particular the fan-favorite "Soaky in the Pooper," a vivid recounting of a bad LSD trip -- immediately signaled their obvious distance from the likes of Uncle Tupelo or the Jayhawks.
The lovely How I Quit Smoking appeared in 1996 (although on the subsequent "Cigaretiquette" single, Wagner would proudly announce, "I'm smoking again"). Recorded live the previous Independence Day, the Hank EP followed later in 1996. Marking the debut of drummer Paul Burch, the disc represented the apotheosis of Lambchop's Billy Sherrill-inspired phase, its lush production evoking the Nashville sound so popular three decades earlier, but by then completely passé among Music City's chart superstars. 1997's Thriller proved a major turning point; highlighted by the Muscle Shoals soul of "Your Fucking Sunny Day" and including no fewer than three songs penned by East River Pipe's F.M. Cornog, this sprawling, difficult album introduced the uncompromising eclecticism that would dominate Lambchop's work from here on out. The follow-up, 1998's What Another Man Spills, upped the ante further. On remarkably soulful covers of Curtis Mayfield's "Love Song (Give Me Your Love)" and Frederick Knight's "I've Been Lonely for So Long," Wagner's baritone drawl even gives way to a Prince-like falsetto. That same year, the group also backed Vic Chesnutt on his album The Salesman and Bernadette.
Lambchop's fifth full-length, Nixon, appeared in the spring of 2000. Supposedly a concept album exploring the presidency of the infamous Tricky Dick, Wagner even included a bibliography in the liner notes -- a direct connection to the Watergate scandal remains unidentified. Though still criminally unknown at home, Lambchop enjoyed a much more substantial following overseas, and on May 13, 2000 they appeared at the London Royal Festival Hall. The gig was recorded and made available at U.K. appearances that fall as the Queens Royal Trimma limited-edition EP. (A 2001 European tour yielded the Treasure Chest of the Enemy EP.) The 2001 collection Tools in the Dryer assembled many of Lambchop's scattered singles, compilation tracks, and remixes.
After recording the purposefully spare Is a Woman in 2002, Wagner and company moved on to their most ambitious project yet -- two simultaneously released albums, Aw C'Mon and No, You C'Mon, in which Lambchop returned to full power and joined by a lush string section. The next year, the musically experimental EP CoLAB came out, followed in the spring of 2006 by The Decline of Country & Western Civilization, Pt. 2: The Woodwind Years, an eclectic collection of tracks that had never appeared before on Lambchop records, including one new song, "Gettysburg Address," and a record of all-new material called Damaged later that summer. 2008 saw the release of the typically graceful and elegant OH (Ohio), followed in early 2012 by the group’s 11th full-length outing, the austere Mr. M., which offered up 11 lush, string-laden meditations on love and loss, all of which were dedicated to the late Vic Chesnutt. In 2015, Kurt Wagner introduced his electronic side project HeCTA, and elements of HeCTA's eclectic musical approach informed Lambchop's next project. FLOTUS (which Wagner says stands for "For Love Often Turns Us Still") was released in October 2016. (Jason Ankeny, AllMusic)

After the ambitious sweep of releasing two full albums on a single day in 2004 and creating a collaborative electronic EP with Hands Off Cuba while assembling a collection of singles and rarities in 2005, one can hardly blame Kurt Wagner and his partners in Lambchop for wanting to take on a less challenging project for the group's ninth album proper. And indeed, Damaged is a simpler and more streamlined effort than Lambchop have offered over their last several releases. Damaged is a set of ten elegant tone poems which rarely call full attention to the size and scope of the 15-person ensemble (enhanced with a string section) employed for these sessions. But don't get the idea Wagner and his cohorts have gotten lazy; Damaged is as moving and accomplished an album as this band has ever made, with the subtle but expert musicianship used in the service of a handful of songs which look deep into the heart of longing, disappointment, and the troubling mysteries of faith. If you're hoping for an easy-to-follow narrative from Wagner's songs, you'll be disappointed, but through a collection of accumulated, gestured, offhand asides and occasional confessions of weakness, he creates a world that's telling, poignant, and as real as the dust in the air on a Sunday morning. And the mighty Lambchop ensemble approaches the melodies with the care and dynamics of a great orchestra, where each note is carefully balanced as if it was assembling a house of cards that can miraculously balance a grand piano. While Lambchop's country gestures recede a bit on Damaged, as a master class in the art and craft of record-making in the great Nashville tradition, this album is a true wonder, a quiet and deliberate recording that cumulatively hits with a massive emotional impact. This ranks with the best work of one of America's most original musical visionaries. [An edition of the album was released in 2006 that included a four-song bonus disc.] (Mark Deming, AllMusic)

William Tyler: guitar
Tony Crow: piano
Sam Baker: drums (tracks 3-10)
Matt Swanson: bass
Kurt Wagner: guitar and vocals
Alex McManus: guitars
Deanna Varagona: baritone saxophone
Paul Niehaus: steel guitar, electric guitar (track 6)
Marc Trovillion: electronics (track 7)
Jonathan Marx: electronics (tracks 1, 2, 8) sound interludes
Ryan Norris: keyboards, electronics (track 1, 2, 8) sound interludes
Scott Martin: drums (track 2), electronics (track 1, 2, 8) sound interludes
Roy Agee: trombones
Gary Tussing: cello (track 1)
G daddy: acoustic guitar (track 4)
Bruce Colson: violins
Ames Asbell: viola
Ben Westney: cello
String Arrangements (tracks 2, 8, 10) by Peter Stopshinski