Sunday Features - CDs - October 31, 2004

The Czars (Bella Union)

Another crushingly lovely record from Denver's underrated Czars. Goodbye is a gay break-up album in which echoes of Robert Wyatt, Queen, ELO, Flaming Lips, torchsong country and jazz lap around singer John Grant's complex, deeply felt kiss-off. It helps that Grant is blessed with the voice of a sad-eyed angel. The gentle, irresistible gallop of Paint the Moon is the Czars at their most instinctively melodic.

Goodbye is an exploration of feelings and emotions that are often in conflict with one another. Sometimes angry, sometimes tender, always inspired, it is hard to imagine a band who can match The Czars for power, gravity and grace. As an artistic endeavour for The Czars it is the statement of a group that has reached both a sonic and aesthetic maturity.

The album begins with a haunting piano solo, lightly sketching out the structure of the astonishing title track. The opening line "I'm waiting over here just to see you for the last time" establishes an anxiety about moving on, while the hopeful sound of the chorus is underscored with the darkness of the line, "I love to see you fade and die."


Title: Goodbye
Release Date: September 27, 2004

'Paint the Moon', the stunning third track, is possibly the most perfectly-realised Czars song to date. Shuffling drums underpin John Grant’s caressing vocals on this country-tinged moment of genius. The track is based on an episode of the Twilight Zone and continues the themes of mortality and remorse.

'Hymn' is a definitive moment for the new sound of the band. Music boxes, multi-tracked vocals and electronic inflections texture the chord progressions. In the second verse, the beautiful vocals of Sara Lov, from Bella Union label-mates Devics, provide a striking contrast to Grant’s voice. 'My Love' is a lovely, lazy ballad, spinning a tale of a forbidden love while stressing the importance of knowing what you've got before you lose it. It descends into the dark, bluesy chords of 'Little Pink House' – a tribute to Grant's grandmother. The vocals of Andy's sister Julie Monley add a deep, soulfulness on this classic bluesy number, and trumpet virtuoso Ron Miles solos beautifully.

A striking contrast to earlier pieces, 'I am The Man' combines eccentric electronica, distorted guitars and a vocodered chorus, with Grant boasting: "I’m not just a man, I am the man you can’t have..." 'Trash' continues the theme, and is certainly Grant at his most scathing. It also contains a fabulously over-the-top guitar solo. Brian May eat your heart out!


Title: The Ugly People Vs the Beautiful People
Release Date: November 25, 2002 (UK release)

After this the mood settles into the recognition of loss and regret. 'I Saw a Ship' utilises a simple child-like melody to express the feelings of someone who has been beaten down by life. 'L.O.S.' again lingers on the past: "I want you to remember me for things I never did", sings Grant on a killer chorus to melt the hardest heart. The urgency of the music seems to reflect the crisis of knowing it is too late to change things. The song ends with beautiful weaving melodies and a peaceful feeling of resolve.

'Bright Black Eyes' seems to gel all of these confused feelings into a sense of finality. There is an awareness of being wronged, but also a sense of one’s own accountability when Grant sings, "I have let you play me and take me to places that I thought that I couldn’t find." There is a sense of recovered strength at the end of the album as the song builds to it’s rousing climax. After a short space, the album’s secret track – 'Pain' - reflects on the episodes that made the album possible: "Pain, it takes so much pain to help you feel if you can’t feel at all", sings Grant over an addictive slice of catchy west coast pop.

Goodbye isn't simply a narcotic swoon of melancholy, however: "I Am the Man" and "Trash" are immensely spiteful. Consistently inventive, profoundly moving, and never less than gorgeous, Goodbye is staggering. It's high time its creators stopped being Denver's best-kept secret.

The Czars make their eagerly-awaited return superb third album, Goodbye, the follow-up to The Ugly People Vs the Beautiful People, which was released to great critical-acclaim in autumn 2001.


Title: Before... But Longer
Release Date: November 25, 2002 (UK release)

Goodbye is filled with incredible songs notable for their rich production, high levels of musicianship and, of course, John Grant's beautiful baritone vocals, painting broad textures over dense sonic space. Lyrically, the album deals with themes of loss, regret and change. It begins with a haunting piano solo, lightly sketching out the structure of the astonishing title track.

It would be hard to think of a band who manage to incorporate so many influences into their music as The Czars. John Grant’s electic taste takes in artists as diverse as Kraftwerk, Patsy Cline, Cabaret Voltaire, Jane Siberry, Rachmaninoff, Tom Waits, Nina Simone, Low, Miles Davis… Yet though one can detect these influences, The Czars never sound like anyone other than themselves.

Upon returning to Denver after six years spent at school in Germany, vocalist John Grant formed the first incarnations of the Czars with bassist Chris Pearson, drummer Jeff Linsenmaier, and a revolving door of guitarists. Andy Monley, who had played with Pearson in Jux County, offered his services on guitar and eventually became a full-time member. The band sent a copy of a self-produced CD to the Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde, who had just started his own Bella Union label with bandmate Robin Guthrie. Impressed with the band's diverse mix of shoegaze and alternative country, Raymonde eventually flew the band to his September Sound studio to record 2000's Before...But Longer. The Ugly People Vs. the Beautiful People followed in 2001.

John Grant from The Czars last year made one of the most tuneful renditions of the poems, on "16 Haiku and Other Stories - Haiku Fourteen (b)".


Title: 16 Haiku and Other Stories
Release Date: October 13, 2003