The Way Out

The Books have a terrific sense of humor-- and it makes The Way Out, an album built on eccentric vocal samples, a good-natured discovery instead of a cheap piece of mockery. Imagine if a blog had posted these clips of goofball hypnotherapist and meditation consultants, or found a tape of a boy and a girl swapping violent threats with each other: You'd chuckle and move on. But when the Books use these samples, they give them integrity. You find yourself engrossed with people who are alien but also familiar. The flotsam and jetsam of American culture aren't a cheap joke to the Books, but a source of endless discovery and joy.

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The Books have always been a psychedelic listen, but never has the experience been so trenchantly mind altering as it is here. Even as far back as their debut Thought for Food, a release that stands not only as a magnum opus for the group but sound collage as a whole, the group was selling out-of-context vocal found sounds over strident, folk-oriented string instruments. Mainly cello. And the result has always been something sort of new age, likened to self-help but not quite helpful. Enlightenment often seemed enough. Essentially, the Books made music that made you think without thinking and know without knowing. Stuff with a point; art, but stuff without a common musical use; ambience. But The Way Out takes this a little further. From the beginning of this album it is clear the group aims to expand your understanding of the world’s machinations through psychedelia and disorientation.

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While we’re all waiting for the new Avalanches album, The Books have delivered their own pot-pourri of samples to tide us over. Not that they’ve been particularly hasty about it either, mind. It might not have taken them the nine years and counting the Australians have racked up to produce their new LP, but it’s still been five years since the New York duo Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong’s last album Lost and Safe. Time they seem to have spent listening to new age meditation tapes and watching an inordinate amount of kids’ TV. Although, if you’re a band known for stitching together odd samples with acoustic instruments, you could probably justify that as ‘looking for samples’. To be fair, though, since the duo have both started families during their extended hiatus, needing to entertain the kids by plonking them in front of the telly and then relaxing after they’ve gone to bed with some self-help spiritualism becomes understandable; the fact that they’ve then managed to make an album out of it almost admirable.

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New Age is quite often followed closely by the word "bollocks", and while The Way Out isn't strictly a New Age effort it's pretty damn close. Call it filth by association, but for the most part The Books' latest offering is appalling.

Full Review | More Reviews from Publication | Top Rated of 2010