Canadian Tales of Love, Broken Churches, and Two-Headed Calves

Loomer
Songs of the Wild West Island
Newtone Records

If you love alt country, if you want to hear the best alt country band since Whiskeytown, and if you want to see Britannia rule again (sorry, wait, no that's Pink Floyd, nevermind), then you should go check out Loomer. Scott Loomer's second album, Songs of the Wild West Island, is most likely the best independent album I may have ever heard. If Lost Highway had any sense they'd sign Loomer in an instant and start cranking out the records.

Scott Loomer is a new name to me too. I first heard of him when I got his album in the mail to review. It's got a funny little kid on the front, an odd band name ("Loomer?" sounds like a misguided Goth band), and an accompanying flyer saying it was the best Canadian alt country band around. Oh, and that Sarah Harmer sings on one of the songs. I thought, alright, sure, whatever, and gave it a listen.

I've not been able to stop listening to this album ever since.

"Songs of the Wild West Island" has some of the most beautifully lush alt country sound since Whiskeytown, dark, sincere, twangy. The arrangements and melodies are so powerful and so beautiful that they sometimes disconnect you from the words. Words? Are there words? Who needs words with music like this? But then when you listen to and read the lyrics you realize two things -- 1) these are some of the best lyrics I've ever heard, and 2) often the song is about something else entirely than your first impression.

Several of these songs are based on some rather black humor, a la Robbie Fulks, but often with a very different feeling then what the music implies. The music is kind of a head-fake; "hey, I'm a solemn, serious song," but then you read the lyrics and realize it's about giving thanks for a driver who was creamed on a highway in his fancy Mercedes, and so they built a better intersection. (That's Sunday Driver Down, awesome song! Did he drive into a church? Can't really tell.) Crazy disconnection, powerful asymmetry, beautiful prose artfully disguised.

The first track, and the one that first grips you in Loomer's snares, is Bang the Nails, a beautiful, almost atmospheric song whose lyrics explore the bizarre love triangle between humans, other humans, and God. "So set the metal to the hone; to pierce this skin and break the bone; and bang the nails in straight and true; and blame it all on God."

Old Grey Ford - my second favorite song of the album, is a strangely compelling song about a young farmer's son with a two-headed calf (carcass?) in the back of his truck. He's going to town (Montreal) to show it off in a freak show and be a "millionaire". I love the great rhythm guitar and rolling banjo. He peppers great harmonies on powerful vocal lines throughout the song like, "Dear sister please don't you roll those disappointed eyes 'cause I'm not as strong as you..."

Want a faster song? Dirt Angel is one of those high-powered gas-guzzling songs that flat out dares you to drive under the speed limit while listening to it!

Caramel Heart is based on an ice cream sundae metaphor. "You were born with a caramel heart all soft and warm and sticky; I am just some old ice cream, all cold and hard and grainy." Sickly sweet, saccharine? It might sound it, and I'd think so on anyone else's album, but belive me, Loomer really pulls it off. His music and the rest of the great lyrics really let him pull this off. I'm surprised myself!

There are several other great, great songs, but I guess I should mention Only Lovers, which is the duet with Sarah Harmer. This is a slow sad, country weeper, in the vein of several of the classic old country duets. Sarah's voice comes through strongly and plays a great counter to Scott's beautiful, grainy voice.

Overall, Loomer is a talent you should check out, and "Scott Loomer" is a name you should remember. You'll be hearing lots more from him in the future, I promise.