Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
Critic Score
Based on 21 reviews
2008 Ratings: #42 / 806
User Score
Based on 71 ratings
2008 Rank: #160
Liked by 13 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
musicOMH

Lookout Sea paradoxically Silver Jews' most complex and most accessible work to date. Better yet, it improves with each listen, as more and more nuances and links are revealed.

100
Slant Magazine

It is no small feat to write melodies as memorable as Berman's exceedingly quotable lyrics, but on each song here, he does. Lookout Mountain is an outstanding work of art.

80
Mojo
Clean, reverbed electric guitar chime and twang gorgeously and the production is simple and simpatico, but it's Berman's strange yet archetypal-sounding tales of gulible skinsmen and prisons built from sweets that keep you coming back for more.
80
The Guardian

Everyone involved - Berman, his wife Cassie on bass, various Lambchop alumni - evidently delights in each song's peculiarities, and their pleasure can't help but suffuse the listener, too.

80
Alternative Press

If alt-country were truly alternative, it might sound more like Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, especially on 'What Is Not But Could Be If,' where Silver Jews leader David Berman's booming vocals run as deep as anything this side of Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen in their prime.

80
Under the Radar

While his deadpanned wit is ever the disarming device on the band’s sixth album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, it’s balanced with a decidedly sober appraisal of life’s monumental hardships and meager redemptions.

80
Uncut
However unappetizing it may first appear, this is grimly funny food for thought.
80
Paste

As a vehicle for Berman’s words, just as much as a follow-up to his 1999 poetry collection "Actual Air" would be, Lookout Mountain is a volume to be consumed in one’s own time, filed on the shelf, and eventually taught in seminars as an example of form and poise.

80
SPIN
Musically, his sixth Silver Jews album is a low-key treat, country-inflected folk rock goosed by melodies that conjure both the Velvet Underground ("Open Field") and Johnny Cash ("Candy Jail").
80
AllMusic

Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea reveals more poetic, as well as playful, layers with each listen -- and above all, underscores what an inviting songwriter Berman is, whether he's taking a darker or lighter approach.

80
NOW Magazine
If this isn’t the band’s best yet, it’s still damn good.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
As always, Berman and the Silver Jews work best in their classically sharp, witty song stylings and deftly produced Americana constructions. And most of the songs here exhibit just that.
80
Drowned in Sound

Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is the logical next chapter in this manuscript which has had many of us hooked since the opening lines.

77
Coke Machine Glow

Lookout doesn’t have the feel of a major step forward for the Silver Jews: sonically, it falls pretty comfortably between Bright Flight and Tanglewood and doesn’t have the sort of big events that marked those two records.

75
Prefix
There’s not much here that will elevate the band beyond their current status. Bermanites will still revel in his idiosyncratic lyrics, and they can even play along thanks to an insert that lists all the chords used on the record.
67
A.V. Club

He hasn't lost the sardonic smarts, but there's a sense of lightness—the playful, country-ish rock is more playful and country-ish—that by its nature removes some of the gravity and graveness of his songs.

67
Pitchfork

I prefer to think of Lookout Mountain as an album of pretty-good songs from a guy who has written some unbelievably great ones, and will, more than likely, write some more of that quality down the road.

60
PopMatters

On an album so brief, these less effective songs take up an awful lot of space, making for a record that is fun throughout, but still awfully uneven. Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is hit and miss, but its missteps come as a result of admirable risks.

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