█████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▓▓ ██████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▒ ████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▓ █████████████████████████████████████████ ░▒ ▒▒ ░██████████████████████████████████████▒▒▓ ▓ ███████████████████████████████████████ ▒░ ████████████████████████████████████ █ ██████████████████████████████████▒ █ ▓█████████████████████████████████ ▒ ████████████████████████████████ ▒▒ ▒██████████████████████████████ ▒█ █████████████████████████████ ▒█▓▒ ████████████████████████████ ░██░ ░█░ ███████████████████████████ ████ ██████████████████████████▒ ▓████ █████████████████████████▓ █████░ █████████████████████████▓ ██████░ ████████████████████████▓ ███████ ███████████████████████▓ ████████▒ ▓█████████████████████▒ ▓█████████ ████████████████████░ ░███████████▒ █████████░██████▓░ ▒█████████████▒ ██████▓ ██ ▒▒█████████████████▒ ░█████ ███ ░ ░▒████████████████████▒▒ ██████▒░█▒██░█ █▒ ████████████████████████▒ ████████▒ ▓███ ████▓█ ██████████████████████░ ███████ ▒ ░██░ █ ███ ▒███████████████████████ ███████░ ▒ ███ █ ░██████████████████████████ ████████▓ ▓█░ ▒██████████████████████████████▒ ████████░▒██▒██████████████████████████████████ ████████████ █████████████████████████████████▒ ████████████ ████████████████████████████████ ████████████▓░██████████████████████████████▒ ████ ██ ██ █████████████ █████████████████████████████▒ ██ ██ ██████████████████████████████████████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████ █████████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ███████████████████████████████████████▓ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ██████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██ ████████████████████████████████████▒ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████████████████████████████████▒ ▒ █████████████████████████████████ ▒▒░ ELITE RECORD PLAYERS ███████████████████████████████ ▒▒ █████████████████████████████ ▒ ▒▒ ██████████████████████████▓ ▒▒▒ ████████████████████████ ░▒ ████████████████████ ░▒▓▒ ░ ███████████████▒▒░░▒░█░ ░ ┌────────┐ ────┤ Info ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ Artist | Lambchop Title | Flotus Genre | Alternative Format | Album Source | CDDA Time | 68:31 Label | City Slang Store | 2016 Catalog | SLANG50100 Rip | 2017 Bitrate | 226 kbps Size | 118.29 MB Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4 ┌────────┐ ────┤ Tracks ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ 01. In Care Of 8675309 11:51 02. Directions To The Can 3:32 03. Flotus 3:29 04. JFK 5:32 05. Howe 4:05 06. Old Masters 4:43 07. Relatives #2 5:25 08. Harbor Country 3:26 09. Writer 3:41 10. NIV 4:35 11. The Hustle 18:12 ┌────────┐ ────┤ Notes ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ Touted as 'Nashville's most fucked-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 Fucking 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). Since their recording debut in 1994, Lambchop have evolved from a small combo to a veritable orchestra, complete with horns and strings. But since the mid-2000s, Lambchop leader, songwriter, and lead singer Kurt Wagner has been easing back on the scale of his ensemble, and 2016's "FLOTUS" is one of the most purposefully spare albums of his career. Lambchop once cheerfully described themselves as 'Nashville's most fucked-up country band'. but "FLOTUS" betrays not the slightest country influence. On "FLOTUS" - which Wagner insists stands not for "First Lady of the United States", but "For Love Often Turns Us Still" - the languid, spectral melodies are most often carried by pianos, synthesizers, bass, and drum machines, easing along with the unobtrusive grace of an ambient performance. And Wagner treats his own voice as another instrument in the ensemble, processing his singing through Auto-Tune that transforms his distinctive mutter into something quite different. "FLOTUS" plays like Wagner's Bizarro World take on smooth R&B and electronic pop, though most of this is too laid-back to function as dance music (even though the liner notes contain convenient BPM counts for each tune). But as different as the approach may be, the melodies and the homey but abstract lyrics still sound like the work of Kurt Wagner. Bookended by two extended numbers (the finale, 'The Hustle', comes in at over 18 minutes), this music is full of emotional warmth despite the cool surfaces, and though Wagner experimented with electronics with his side project HeCTA, on "FLOTUS" he's found a way to effectively fuse beats and keyboards with the slightly bent but heartfelt persona he's carefully fashioned over time. And while it bears little resemblance to anything in Wagner's catalog, "The Hustle" feels like some sort of masterwork, a rueful but passionate meditation on love and relationships that glides along on an endless pulse that's as elemental and sustaining as the human heart. Two decades on, Lambchop are not only still able to surprise listeners, they're doing some of their best work at the same time, and "FLOTUS" is an unexpected triumph. ┌────────┐ ────┤ Group ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘