lamb chop is back with The Biblehis best album since Mr. M. Kurt Wagner, the man behind the project, wrote the album during the global COVID-19 pandemic, while American society was tearing itself apart, while he cared for his elderly father. in Minneapolis, far from his musical family, but close to his blood family.
Legend has it that during one night he was unable to sleep. Kurt Wagner was on Instagram and he ran into Andrew Broder, a friend from Minneapolis, whom he had met in Berlin because of Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). In the midst of questions about life, death, loneliness and the idea of spirituality outside the shackles of religion, something clicked. The next lamb chop would see Wagner, Broder and Ryan Olson unite. This is the first time that Wagner has opened up to the possibility of collaboration of this kind and it smiles on him.
lamb chop continues to use AutoTune as on his previous albums, but this time more sparingly. It gives wonderful moments like Dylan at the Mousetrap as Wagner sings poignantly and finds a way to work through these effects a rare vulnerability. He does it again, but in a different register on Little Black Boxes. He finally found a way to use technology to support his proposal. These effects blend easily with the electronic elements that also rub shoulders with the disco guitar, the drum machines and vocal choirs. Add to that hot brass which elevate the whole. It’s so effective.
Already the first single, Police Dog Blues, announced to us the grandiose. His baritone voice caressed our ears even if the questions he carries with him are heavy. Everything completes. Wagner is restrained when he sings, the horns embody the obligatory sadness that follows news like that of George Floyd’s death and then Madison Hallman’s voice carries all the anger such disgusting events elicit. Wagner combines all these levels of reading with an incredible musical intelligence. It is simply breathtaking.
If there is one thing that lamb chop made on The Bible, is to touch the soul with its approach as unusual as it is effective. The magnificent musical score ofA Minor Major Drag alone is a reason to drop everything to spend time with the singer-songwriter. There is as much magic as restraint in the proposal and through it Wagner inserts himself with his sonically doctored voice, but still so full of soul.
Get ready for a magnificent adventure on The Bible. It’s a dive into the questions that come with age, but also a funny observation on the vulnerability of others. Who would have thought that Kurt Wagner needed to be surrounded for the first time in a long time to agree to give himself up like this?