Western Vinyl
2004
Slaves' Graves & Ballads
About This Album
The prolific experimental pop collective the Dirty Projectors return with Slaves' Graves & Ballads, their third album in a year. Originally, the album was released as two EPs early in 2004, but despite the high-concept nature of each of the EPs, all of the songs fit together well, making the album cohesive as well as diverse. The first half of Slaves' Graves & Ballads features Dave Longstreth backed by a ten-piece chamber group he founded called the Orchestral Society for the Preservation of the Orchestra. While this could seem pretentious coming from many other artists, the sense of drama the chamber group brings to Longstreth's distinctive crooning and cryptic lyrics ("the way a logo is different from an icon") actually makes it more immediate than some of the Dirty Projectors' other music. The combination of the sweeping strings, woodwinds, and brass with Longstreth's small, keening voice throws each element into even sharper contrast. The mix of majesty and intimacy in songs like the oddly alert, anticipatory "On the Beach" and "Slaves' Graves" may be theatrical, but it's distinctly emotional too; "(Throw On) The Hazard Lights" and "Hazard Lights (Reprise)" recall the primitive grandeur of The Glow, Pt. 2
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10)

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