Last Days of Wonder

Last updated
Last Days of Wonder
Artist THE HANDSOME FAMILY album LAST DAYS OF WONDER.jpg
Studio album by
Released2006
Length43:23
Label Carrot Top / Loose Music
The Handsome Family chronology
Singing Bones
(2003)
Last Days of Wonder
(2006)
Honey Moon
(2009)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 80/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
The A.V. Club A− [2]
Pitchfork Media 6.7/10 [3]
Robert Christgau A− [4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]

Last Days of Wonder is the seventh studio album released by The Handsome Family. It was released 2006 by Carrot Top Records (North America) / Loose Music (Europe). The title is a reference to Puritan scientist and witch-hunter Cotton Mather's 1693 book Wonders of the Invisible World , which lyricist Rennie Sparks found intriguing because of what she called its "madness brimming under the surface of things." [6]

Contents

Reception

The album was well received by critics: according to Metacritic, the album has received an average review score of 80/100, based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [1] Critic Robert Christgau wrote, "At her best—which must not come easy, or they'd release more and more consistent albums—Rennie Sparks is a great American realist." [4] The A.V. Club's Christopher Bahn said that "the Sparks don't seem particularly interested in experimenting with new musical styles, but that isn't a weakness so much as an unswerving fix on what they do better than anyone else." [2]

Track listing

  1. "Your Great Journey" – 3:13
  2. "Tesla's Hotel Room" – 3:56
  3. "These Golden Jewels" – 3:32
  4. "After We Shot The Grizzly" – 3:33
  5. "Flapping Your Broken Wings" – 3:45
  6. "Beautiful William" – 4:22
  7. "All The Time In Airports" – 3:43
  8. "White Lights" – 3:36
  9. "Bowling Alley Bar" – 2:52
  10. "Hunter Green" - 4:29
  11. "Our Blue Sky" - 2:59
  12. "Somewhere Else To Be" - 3:23

Personnel [7]

The Handsome Family

with:

Technical

Related Research Articles

<i>Wonders of the Invisible World</i> 1693 book written by Cotton Mather

The Wonders of the Invisible World was a book written by Cotton Mather and published in 1693. It was subtitled, Observations As well Historical as Theological, upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devils. The book defended Mather's role in the witchhunt conducted in Salem, Massachusetts. It espoused the belief that witchcraft was an evil magical power. Mather saw witches as tools of the devil in Satan's battle to "overturn this poor plantation, the Puritan colony", and prosecution of witches as a way to secure God's blessings for the colony.

<i>Stevie Wonders Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"</i> 1979 soundtrack album by Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" is an album by Stevie Wonder, originally released on the Tamla Motown label on October 30, 1979. It is the soundtrack to the documentary The Secret Life of Plants, directed by Walon Green, which was based on the book of the same name by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. It contains two singles that reached the Billboard Hot 100 charts: "Send One Your Love" and the minor hit "Outside My Window". The single "Black Orchid" reached No. 63 in the UK.

<i>Keep It Like a Secret</i> 1999 studio album by Built to Spill

Keep It Like a Secret is the fourth studio album released by American indie rock band Built to Spill, and their second for Warner Bros. Records.

<i>Cockahoop</i> 2003 studio album by Cerys Matthews

Cockahoop is Cerys Matthews' first solo album, released in 2003. It peaked at number 30 on the UK Albums Chart, spending five weeks therein.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grizzly Bear (band)</span> American rock band

Grizzly Bear was an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. For most of its tenure, the band has consisted of Edward Droste, Daniel Rossen, Chris Taylor, and Christopher Bear. The band employed both traditional and electronic instruments, and their sound has been categorized as psychedelic pop, folk rock, and experimental. The band was known for their use of vocal harmony, with all four members contributing vocals and lead vocals alternating between Rossen and Droste.

<i>Yellow House</i> (album) 2006 studio album by Grizzly Bear

Yellow House is the second studio album by American rock band Grizzly Bear, released on September 5, 2006, by Warp Records. Produced by bass guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor, the album's title refers to vocalist Ed Droste's mother's house where the majority of recording took place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikola Tesla in popular culture</span>

Nikola Tesla is portrayed in many forms of popular culture. The Serbian-American engineer has particularly been depicted in science fiction, a genre which is well suited to address his inventions; while often exaggerated, the fictionalized variants build mostly upon his own alleged claims or ideas. A popular, growing fixation among science fiction, comic book, and speculative history storytellers is to portray Tesla as a member of a secret society, along with other luminaries of science. The impacts of the technologies invented by Nikola Tesla are a recurring theme in the steampunk genre of alternate technology science-fiction.

<i>Live at the Budokan</i> (Chic album) 1999 live album by Chic

Live at the Budokan is a live album by American band Chic, released on Nile Rodgers' label Sumthing Else in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Handsome Family</span> US alternative country and Americana band

The Handsome Family is an American music duo consisting of husband and wife Brett and Rennie Sparks formed in Chicago, Illinois, and as of 2001 based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They are perhaps best known for their song "Far from Any Road" from the album Singing Bones, which was used as the main title theme for the first season of the 2014 crime drama True Detective. The band's tenth album, Unseen, was released in 2016. The band's 11th studio album Hollow, was released on September 8, 2023.

<i>Odessa</i> (The Handsome Family album) 1994 debut album by the Handsome Family

Odessa is the first album by American band The Handsome Family. It was released 1994 by Carrot Top Records.

<i>Milk and Scissors</i> 1996 album by the Handsome Family

Milk and Scissors is the second album by American band The Handsome Family. It was released 1996 by Carrot Top Records, and by Scout Releases in the same year.

<i>Through the Trees</i> 1998 album by the Handsome Family

Through the Trees is the third full-length album released by The Handsome Family, released in 1998 on Carrot Top Records/Loose Music. The album has received significant critical praise, and is considered one of the band's best works.

<i>In the Air</i> (The Handsome Family album) 2000 album by the Handsome Family

In The Air is the fifth album released by American band The Handsome Family. It was released in 2000 by Carrot Top Records / Loose Music (Europe) and comes as an enhanced audio CD with an additional video for the song "Amelia Earhart vs. The Dancing Bear," from Milk and Scissors.

<i>Twilight</i> (The Handsome Family album) 2001 album by the Handsome Family

Twilight is the sixth album released by The Handsome Family. It was released 2001 by Carrot Top Records / Loose Music (Europe).

<i>Honey Moon</i> (The Handsome Family album) 2009 album by the Handsome Family

Honey Moon is the eighth studio album released by The Handsome Family. It was released 2009 by Carrot Top Records / Loose Music (Europe).

<i>Wilderness</i> (The Handsome Family album) 2013 album by the Handsome Family

Wilderness is the ninth studio album by The Handsome Family. It was released in May 2013 by Carrot Top Records. Wilderness is an often surreal concept album about nature, with each song named after an animal.

<i>Salute the Majesty of Bob Wills</i> 1998 studio album by Pine Valley Cosmonauts

Salute the Majesty of Bob Wills is a tribute album by the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, released on September 8, 1998, on Bloodshot Records. It consists of the Pine Valley Cosmonauts' covers of songs originally performed and written by legendary western swing musician Bob Wills. Artists featured on the album include Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Alejandro Escovedo, Edith Frost and Robbie Fulks.

KatJonBand was a collaborative musical project between Jon Langford and Kat Ex. After collaborating on and off for decades, Langford and Ex decided to write and record songs together in 2004 after Langford performed at one of the Ex's live shows in Amsterdam. They debuted the project in 2005, touring Germany and Austria, before recording 10 songs together and releasing them as KatJonBand's eponymous debut album in 2008.

<i>Unseen</i> (The Handsome Family album) 2016 album by the Handsome Family

Unseen is the tenth studio album by The Handsome Family. It was released in September 2016 by the band's own label Milk & Scissors Music, and Loose Music in Europe.

<i>10-5-60</i> 1983 EP by The Long Ryders

10-5-60 is an EP and the first release by American band the Long Ryders. It was released in September 1983 by PVC Records and preceded the bands full-length debut album Native Sons.

References

  1. 1 2 "Last Days of Wonder Reviews". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  2. 1 2 Bahn, Christopher (5 July 2006). "Review: The Handsome Family, Last Days Of Wonder". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  3. "The Handsome Family: Last Days of Wonder". Pitchfork .
  4. 1 2 Christgau, Robert. "The Handsome Family". Robert Christgau . Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  5. Larkin, Colin, ed. (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. p. 1637. ISBN   978-0-85712-595-8 . Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  6. Bahn, Christopher (8 February 2006). "Interview: Brett and Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family". A.V. Club. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  7. cf. Brett & Rennie Sparks (2006): Credits. In Last Days Of Wonder [CD booklet]. Chicago: Carrot Top Records.