Although from the capital of the American country industry (Nashville), the group around frontman Kurt Wagner has always remained an outsider in the country. The company, which on this album consists of no fewer than fifteen musicians in varying line-ups, rather moves in the tradition of so-called 'cosmic American music', which includes various names such as Flying Burrito Brothers, Lee Hazlewood
… and Van Dyke Parks, and in which different traditional American styles come together in atmospheric, sometimes almost cinematic music. In the case of Lambchop, for example, electronic 'soundscapes' appear to go together beautifully with thin pedal steel sounds and subtle brass. Kurt Wagner's cryptic lyrics and fragile talkative vocals, somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Tindersticks' Stuart Staples, are the ever recognizable elements in Lambchop's steadily expanding oeuvre, to which Damaged is another nice addition. (MS)more
