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The Czars
The Czars are one of those bands that have drifted in and out of my life for years. I'll forget how much I adore frontman John Grant's voice and interpretation skills -- and then I'll stumble across the band and be blown away all over again.
Now, it's unclear as to what happened to The Czars after the release of their 2004 album Goodbye (after a ten-year career of toliing in relative obscurity, except in Europe, natch) -- though the title gives a good indication. On the band's old website, there's every indication that they've broken up. But the band's new site (and the website of label Bella Union) features tour dates and a posthumous (?) CD of covers that spans the band's career. Anyway, my point here is that it seems that John Grant is touring as The Czars, either with a rotating cast of characters in his new band, or on his own -- it's a little unclear. In a conundrum that leaves me thoroughly puzzled, I can't find any information out there about the band's current personnel -- maybe if you dear readers know something, you can clue me in.
While I was fussing around the Internet, trying to uncover any clues to the situation described above, I had to laugh at a review in Pop Matters that described The Czars as "Sade meets The Eagles." The reviewer seemed to mean this in a completely derogatory way and probably felt very clever with himself for thinking it up. But when I read that line, a giant lightbulb went off in my mind -- his pithy assessment finally explained why I liked the band so much. It's true, Grant's melancholy voice throbs with a diva's pathos over delicate and deceptively deep California-tinged country-lite melodies. It sounds like an odd combination, to be sure, but it works somehow.
Mostly because just when you've settled comfortably into a song, The Czars bring the weird -- a melody will suddenly turn inside out or flip around in another direction entirely -- like the multi-tracked quasi-religious choruses on "Hymn" that transmogrify into a piano ballad with a guitar solo and come back 'round again, or vitriolic snark reminscent of the best of Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman ("Goodbye"). And then there's the deadpan cover of ABBA's "Angeleyes" and the band's absolutely crazy-making take on Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" that owes as much to the original than it does to the iconic cover done by This Mortal Coil -- a fact most certainly isn't unintentional, as The Czars are on Bella Union, the label run by Cocteau Twins bassist and This Mortal Coil contributor Simon Raymonde.
And, in the end, instead of being dreadfully annoying, it's downright touching that Grant wears his influences on his sleeve so unapologetically.
The Czars - Goodbye
The Czars - Hymn
The Czars - I Saw a Ship
The Czars - Angeleyes
The Czars' official website. Buy the band's latest album, Goodbye, from Amazon or some older albums from the iTunes Music Store.
Shadows tag: theczars.
Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll at 02.16.06 at 3:39 AM
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