Algiers
(City Slang)
The story of this album is the story of one song. Sustained exposure to Joey Burns and John Convertino's seventh studio long-player drives you to their back catalogue, vaulting multiple genres – fado, country, mariachi, jazz – all the way back to 1990. Though initially vague, the quarry becomes clear before long: anything that prefigures the devastating fug of Hush, the 11th and finest of the dozen cuts on Algiers. And while the likes of 2000's Hot Rail sparkle and joust, it is the twin joys of In The Reins, the Arizona-based band's 2005 EP with Iron And Wine, and their hard-to-find cover of American Music Club's Chanel No.5 that rise to the standard set by Hush. So good is the ballad that the remainder of Algiers – easily Calexico's most immediate, ambrosial and vigorous record – is relegated to the status of impossibly long prelude. Like the aforementioned collaboration and cover, Hush mainlines a rare concoction of muggy sensuality, fragile control and vulnerability that makes time stop for the duration of the hit. And, by God, it lingers in the bloodstream, like all good stories should.
