Album Review: Califone- Stitches

Occasionally, when I sit down and listen to Califone, there are moments where I begin to second guess why I even decided I liked them in the first place. I was introduced to them in college by my friend Colin, who gave me a copy of their 2004 LP King Heron Blues. Heron is a relatively dark, dense, and complex affair—as far as hitting that “Califone sound,” I think this is where they probably peaked; rootsy Americana meets laptop noises and effects, crafting a feeling that is both inviting and unsettling at the same time.

Or maybe I just like King Heron Blues because it was the first Califone record I heard. Or maybe I grew weary of their shtick. 2006’s Roots and Crowns is, you know, more of the same. A little noisier, a slightly more expanded sound, but overall—when you hear a Califone song, you get an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.

2009’s All My Friends Are Funeral Singers served as a companion piece, or soundtrack, to a film of the same name, written and directed by Califone leader Tim Rutili. Four years later, I have still not seen this movie; there was a time when it was available to stream on Netflix, but I've learned my lesson about trying to watch “artistic” movies that I know very little about with my wife—she has yet to forgive me for making her sit through Fitzcarraldo, and that was, like, six years ago.

This all brings us to today, and Califone’s latest effort, Stitches. In the press release for the record, much has been made out of the fact that this is the first Califone record where none of the work was completed in Chicago—instead, it was written and recorded in the south and southwest. The southwestern vibe is apparently with the cover art—the purple and pink sky synonymous with the desert.

Stitches takes a minute to find its pacing—the first two tracks, “Movie Music Kills a Kiss,” and the title track, are just a little on the uninteresting side, but the relatively catchy “Frosted Tips,” and the jaunty, piano-driven “Magdalene” were both strong enough songs to keep my attention.

A relatively short album—45 minutes, 10 songs—the second half starts out with the precociously titled “moonbath.brainsalt.a.holy.fool,” a lengthy, somber, alt. country affair, that also happens to be instrumental, as well as one of the album’s high points. Another standout track in the second half is the shimmery “A Thin Skin of Bullfight Dust,” a song that includes all the trademark Califone touches—blasts of noise, lots of effects, tablas, dusty percussion—but the tempo is picked up exponentially, creating a frenetic, driving rhythm that powers through the entire song.

Stitches begins to slow down with the horn-laden groove of “We are a Payphone,” a song that brings the speed of the record back down, and the album closes out with another instrumental—“turtle eggs/an optimist,” a short piece structured around a bubbling sound and lots of reversed guitar noodling. It’s an odd ending to the album—a piece that maybe could have served as an interlude between two “real” songs is the final thing you hear.

After listening to the title track when it was released as a single earlier in the summer, I was a little worried about this album, and how bored I’d be by listening to it. Of the lot, there were enough surprises along the way that made it worth at least one listen. The trouble with Califone is that it’s the kind of music you never find yourself in the mood to listen to—like what mood even calls for a sound like this? I can't think of one. I find that even though I have many Califone records, I don't often sit down and listen to them. Maybe it’s because that sound they can’t seem to get away from gets a little tiresome—as does Tim Rutili’s dusty, weary, somewhat strained vocal stylings.

Stitches seems to want a cohesive sound, but in the end, it comes up a little uneven. The emphasis on this being a record shaped by recording in a different geographical location is something you can hear in certain songs—anything where there’s a horn section, specifically. In comparison to the past few Califone records, you can tell that there was an attempt to steer things in a different sonic direction, but because they are such a unique band, it’s still a Califone record, and it still sounds like a Califone record. That’s not a bad thing. It shows that even when they are uneven, they can still be consistent. 

Stitches drops Tuesday, September 3rd, courtesy of Dead Oceans.