CD Odyssey Disc 1811: The Handsome Family
As long-time readers will know, when I go to a live show I like to pair a review of that show with their most recent album. That’s what we’ve got here! So if you like just studio album reviews, here you go and if you are wondering “yeah, but what are they like live?” that follows immediately after.
Disc 1811 is…Hollow
Want to read how albums are selected and what the ratings mean? Click my introductory post and learn more. Earlier reviews dating back to 2009 are at A Creative Maelstrom (my blog).
Artist: The Handsome Family
Year of Release: 2023
What’s up with the Cover? In addition to being a talented musician Handsome Family member Rennie Sparks is also an artist, and this cover is one of her paintings.
Here we have a snake in a reed-clogged culvert. This is a fine place for a snake, unless you happen to also be hiding in that culvert, maybe after a jailbreak or bank robbery gone wrong. Then you’ll wish the snake would just move along. Then again, maybe local law enforcement would take one look and remark, “he’d be crazy to go into that snake-filled culvert” and go search elsewhere, thus securing your escape.
Unless you get bitten and die while waiting them out.
I guess what I’m saying is whether a snake in a culvert is a good thing or a bad thing is highly circumstantial.
How I Came To Know It: I have been a Handsome Family fan for about ten years and buy their albums as they come out. This proved more difficult than usual with “Hollow” as I couldn’t find a CD version anywhere. I bided my time, however, and eventually was able to snap it up from their merch table at a show last weekend.
How It Stacks Up: I now have 13 Handsome Family albums, which, given their penchant for dark, ill-omened tales, feels right. Of those 13, “Hollow” comes in at #11. This is not a bad thing it is just that the Handsome Family have a lot of great records.
Ratings: 3 stars
“Hollow” is the first album by the Handsome Family (aka husband and wife team Brett and Rennie Sparks) in seven years. I’m good with artists taking as much time as they need to make great art but man, that was a long wait.
It is hard to wait on a new Handsome Family record, because while you are waiting there isn’t anything else that’s going to fill that gap (other than relistening to old Handsome Family records). Their mix of folk/country with Gothic horror is a style all unto itself. As Rennie Sparks herself noted at the live show (reviewed below), when she wants to hear a song about the sound a cement truck makes, and there isn’t one, she’s got to go write it herself.
Rennie is the lyricist of the pair, and while there are no cement trucks on this particular record, there are plenty of oddball and unexpected images to go around. Sparks’ imagination is deep, weird and dark in equal measure. If you like those kinds of things in your writing you will have a very good time listening to their latest.
It is hard to pick a favourite image from a record dripping in this much poetry, but I offer this little tidbit from “The Oldest Water”:
“The first living cell
Growing fat in the shallows
Met the first stranger
When it split down the middle
“But once made separate
There’s no going whole
Water loves melting
Flesh eats alone.”
No one makes science and nature quite so cool as Rennie Sparks. In addition to science, this bit of joy also introduces us to the notion that the same moment that birthed companionship for the first time, also introduced the awareness of isolation. A little body horror is thrown in for good measure that would make David Cronenberg proud.
In other places Rennie shows her softer side, with the pastoral “Shady Lake,” that is an immersive journey into the mystery and wonder of nature.
As poems alone this would be a joy, but Brett Sparks brings prodigious musical talent to the songs that adds layers and emotionally complexity. The best melody on offer is the album’s opening track, “Joseph” principally because of how it creates a hymn-like quality even as it tells the tale of what I think is serious bit of haunting, and maybe a summoning. Brett takes Rennie’s ever off-putting (but delicious) words and generates an unexpected feeling of elation. You won’t be afraid of Joseph’s arrival, but only because Brett’s reassuring baritone lets you know it’s going to be OK.
I should note at this time that I don’t definitively know what any of these songs are about. I learned at the concert that the inspiration of the work can vary from the final product when the Handsome Family get their writing hats on. I prefer to confront art directly without a lot of backstory whenever possible, so this is just what I took from it all after a few listens. Whatever Brett and Rennie tell you these are about is correct – the stories are theirs.
If there was anything negative, I think it is only that the record suffered unfairly from familiarity. I know exactly what the Handsome Family are going to sound like, and my soul is already overstuffed with favourites, making it hard to add more. “Joseph” felt the newest in terms of approach, but otherwise it was more of the same, although here and here I longed for the more stripped-down approach from previous records. This is a minor quibble, and for the most part it was great to get another helping of Handsome Family magic after so many years away.
Best tracks: Joseph, The Oldest Water, Shady Lake, Good Night
The Concert: March 8, 2025 at the Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver
The Handsome Family is one of a few bands I’m willing to undertake an overnight plane ride to Vancouver and back just to see live. By the time you count airfare and hotel, this is an expensive outing, so my desire to see the band has to be significant.
This was my first trip to the Biltmore cabaret, which is in East Vancouver and generally described by online reviewers as a “dive bar”. I have known many a dive bar in my time, and was not deterred by such descriptions.
Upon arrival I did find it a bit divey, but not in a bad way. More of a neighbourhood local kind of way, with sumptuous red velvet bank seating along the walls and a few high stools here and there. The crowd was rough at first sight, but universally friendly and welcoming as soon as you got to know them.
Case in point: we arrived a bit later and all the primo seats were taken, but Sheila fearlessly approached a couple of women in their sixties and asked if we could join them in their banquette. We were welcomed with open arms.
After hitting the merch table a bit hard (I’m a sucker for merch) we settled in for the show.
Early on, singer Brett seemed to struggle a bit with his mic work (or the mic was touchy) and we’d lose him if he leaned out too far, but like a true professional within a song or two he had the range down and was making magic happen.
After many years he and partner Rennie have their banter down to an art form, and if the bits they did between songs were rehearsed they sure sounded organic to me. Open-hearted, opinionated and warm, Rennie takes the role of delightfully weird Goth lady with Brett playing the crotchety straight-man. It was just the right amount of chatting to whet your appetite for the next song without ever over-explaining.
The Handsome Family have a catalogue as expansive as it is dark and creepy, and they played music from throughout their career, with a good mix across the years that satisfied the ravenous fanboy within me.
They played many of my favourites, including “Bottomless Hole”, “The Loneliness of Magnets”, Weightless Again” and “24-Hour Store”. Yeah, I was disappointed not to also get “Cold, Cold, Cold”, “Gold” and “Arlene” but expecting only my favourites felt greedy, and frankly the songs they selected instead were also great.
There isn’t a lot of stage antics (if any) with the band staying glued to their spots throughout. The most physical they got was a bit of aggressive strumming on the heavier tunes. You are instead held by the magic of Brett’s vocals and the apocalyptic poetry of Rennie’s lyrics pouring out of him.
The sound was excellent, even along the side of the venue in the banquette, which was just as well because as you can see from the photo above, we could see very little. Mostly the front half of Brett’s head and most of his guitar (the rest being obscured by a large, suspended block speaker). This did not bother me in the slightest. I’ve been reading a lot of Seneca and Epictetus of late and all that stoicism had me well-prepared to accept and enjoy the circumstance.
There was briefly a very tall dude in front of us, but the ladies at our table brooked no detractions from their concert going experience. One remarked, “I’m going to move that man six inches to the right” and following a polite but firm exchange of words managed to move him a full foot and a half.
After the show, I met Brett hanging around talking to fans in front of the merch table. He looked like he could be anyone’s unassuming but cool uncle, sipping on a tall can of Budweiser and we briefly shot the shit about life, music and stuff. I disengaged before too long though, as my Canadian politeness kicked in.
Overall, it was a fine show, well performed and memorable and ere we left, Sheila exhorted them to come and play in our hometown one day. I hope they do.
Yay, that was such a fun weekend! 💕 Thanks , love!