Ex-Klaatu frontman Terry Draper has always had a fascination with the American Civil War, so he finally decided to write a handful of songs on the subject and group them together on one loosely conceptual album. “Loosely,” because the project still allows for other songs, like “All Over Morocco” and “One More Kiss,” but the idea does hold up. “Civil War (Not Very)” moves from a sound collage of explosions, gunshots and a sampled recording of “Dixie” to Draper’s song itself, looking at two brothers torn apart in the war by accident of birth. It’s very dramatic, theatrical stuff, and very effective for all that. “Rosey’s Bordello” is a hoochie-coochie tribute that could easily be about a place that Civil War soldiers frequented – it is, after all, the world’s oldest profession. Draper’s own version of “Dixie” is recorded to sound as if it was cut back in the early days of the craft – scratchy record sounds, a muffled voice and piano, the song sung in a stagey operatic voice characteristic of the era. Then, about midway through, it yields to a thoroughly modern, sped-up version that carries it away. The slow, synthesizer-propelled balladry of “The Junction” looks at the troops leaving on the trains, wondering what their fates might be. Draper is lucky that his writing, playing, recording and arranging skills can live up to the great leaps of his fertile imagination; and listeners are lucky that they can share in the process. |
