Lambchop

Having jacked in his day job laying linoleum, Lambchop's songwriter Kurt Wagner set himself the task of writing a song a day - a discipline that soon resulted in the musical equivalent of an EU butter mountain, from which were drawn the 24 songs that comprise Awcmon and Noyoucmon. There's not a lot to choose between them: Noyoucmon is marginally more animated and up-tempo in aspect, finding space for the punkish discords of "Nothing Adventurous Please" and the cod doowop nonsense of "Shang a Dang Dang"; otherwise, they share many characteristics. Both open with instrumental overtures, both feature typically quirky Lambchop track-titles ("About My Lighter", "I Haven't Heard a Word I've Said"), and both indulge the same blend of understated country settings smeared with Philly-soul strings. The subject matter is typically outré, ranging from substance abuse ("Low Ambition") and dieting ("Four Pounds in Two Days") to pastoral reflections on Japanese landscape ("Nothing but a Blur from a Bullet Train"); but as Wagner's clipped baritone murmur renders one lyric after another only partially decipherable, the songs start to blur into one another long before the first album is over. One can applaud the industrious attitude, but it's arguable whether all these songs needed to be written, or whether serendipity contains more potent inspiration.