There are, they say, one or two people in the world who could sing the phone book and make it sound heartbreaking. There are, however, few who have tried. Perhaps the closest anyone has come to success to date has been Tom Waits on 'Emotional Weather Report' (from Nighthawks At The Diner) with its unique meteorological forecast: Flash flood watches covered the southern portion of my disposition / There was no severe weather well into the afternoon, except for a lone gust of wind in the bedroom. On DAMAGED, however, Kurt Wagner, the mainstay of LAMBCHOP, Nashvilles ever-morphing collective of musicians, proves that he is worthy of that reputation. Choosing to open their eighth album (or ninth, depending upon whether you call Aw Cmon and No, You Cmon one or two records) with a song inspired by a National Public Radio show called Swap Shop, in which listeners try to buy or sell items on air, is undeniably a bold move. Read the rest...
