Very few people in popular music have built a career out of being bummed out like
the Handsome Family, whose gloomy outlook has been a constant on their albums since the 1990s. (
Brett Sparks, their lead singer and principal instrumentalist, has been diagnosed as bipolar, which is to say his mood swings are not always an affectation.) While more than a few artists of note assume a dark lyrical persona,
the Handsome Family never seem especially theatrical;
Rennie Sparks' lyrics sound both poetic and conversational, portraying a world that's overcast but never without fascination and surprises, and the texture of
Brett's craggy voice makes it the perfect vehicle for her dark, subtly witty themes. The arrangements, centered in acoustic guitars and banjos and augmented by Appalachian-style harmonies, make for music that in dim light could pass for an act that got lost on the way to appearing on
Harry Smith's
Anthology of American Folk Music. However, a quiet eclecticism has made its way into the
Family's music since they found their path with 1998's
Through the Trees, and 2023's
Hollow is one of their most musically satisfying albums in decades. As on the duo's other LPs,
Brett and
Rennie recorded this in their living room and played most of the instruments themselves, and they've managed to keep this material sounding spare and intimate while adding extra layers of musical detail that strengthen the arrangements. The almost-jaunty folk-rock of "To the Oaks," the Baroque pop keyboards on "The King of Everything," the waltz-time bluegrass of "The Oldest Water," and the woozy honky tonk finale of "Good Night" are testaments to the fine art of homemade record production, and the songs merit the time and effort
Brett,
Rennie, and their friends have put into this music. If
the Handsome Family's worldview is dark, they can also find a real kind of humor in their stories, as nature is at odds with resort life on "Skunks" and the comic opera vocal accents of "Mothballs" confirm they can make room for their own kind of showmanship. Is there plenty of sadness in
Hollow? Of course. Is it depressing? Not really -- there's too much life and imagination in
the Handsome Family's work to not find some sort of joy in it, and they're far too good at writing songs and working them up to not earn your admiration. If being bummed out allows someone to make an album as good as
Hollow, maybe there's some upside to it after all. ~ Mark Deming
