Their seventh CD, Last Days of Wonder (June. 2006) was one of Mojo’s top ten American Albums for 2006 and called “an unqualified triumph” by Uncut. Of their sixth CD, Singing Bones, The UK’s Independent wrote, “Rarely, even in the fatalistic world of country music, has the precarious mystery of mortality been captured with such poetic grace as on Singing Bones.”
They have appeared in the movie, I’m Your Man (2005), a tribute to Leonard Cohen as well as Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2004). In 2004, a reader's poll in Mojo named The Handsome Family's third CD, Through the Trees one of the ten essential Americana records.
Last Days of Wonder is a collection of love songs sung in airports, garbage dumps, drive-thru windows and shark-infested waters. The CD celebrates the little miraculous moments of beauty found in everyday life: a golf course shining in the rain, hanging lights bouncing in the breeze, pigeons singing from billboards, trees blooming in squares of dirt. The songs linger on those moments when we’re pulled from the ordinary to feel awed by mystery, bewildered by beauty, terrified by the vast unknowable around us (whether we wander through shady groves or crowded parking lots).
Brett Sparks, who writes the music, draws from medieval melody, country-politan string arrangements, tin-pan alley crooners, and dusty hillbilly records to weave together the fabric of this record. Rennie Sparks, who writes the lyrics, makes magical realism from polar adventure stories, pagan hunting songs and her own time spent (like most people) riding up elevators, staring out hotel room windows, and driving interstate highways. The entire album was recorded over a year's time in the converted garage studio at the back of the Sparks' Albuquerque house. Brett recorded it all on a Mac and a whole mess of wires, microphones and little metal boxes. Alongside the usual guitar, bass and drums you will hear mellotrons, ukulele, banjo, bowed wine glasses, and trombone.
Brett and Rennie (The Handsome Family) have been married for 18 years. In their live performances The Handsome Family are sometimes up to a six-piece band and sometimes just Brett and Rennie with (or without) a laptop computer.
Gravity
The Handsome Family Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He hears them whispering in sacked potatoes
And from the curly leaves of blooming pants
And in the winding tracks of crawling ants
He stands outside, under the sky
Listening to starlight drifting by
Because gravity is not the only force at work
Just like gypsy moths and firebugs
Circle around a shining bulb
The blind man dreams of drifting away
Into the darkness of outer space
And when he walks the city streets
He sprinkles the sidewalks with apple seeds
Because gravity is not the only force at work
In this world
The lyrics of The Handsome Family's song Gravity present a metaphorical reflection on the complex forces at play in the world. The song's protagonist is a blind man who hears angels in unlikely places such as potato sacks, plant leaves, and ant tracks. He stands outside under the starry skies, listening to the starlight as it drifts by. The song suggests that there are other forces at work beyond gravity, hinted by the image of the blind man, who is attuned to the world in other ways, and listens out for what others cannot hear.
In the following stanza, the song references the circle of life, with gypsy moths and firebugs circling around a shining bulb as the blind man dreams of drifting away into the darkness of outer space. This image is a metaphor for the way that we are all drawn towards something bright, shining, and beyond our reach. While the blind man cannot see, he is attuned to the forces of the world and the limitations of our physical reality. The song closes with the image of the blind man sprinkling apple seeds on the city sidewalk, signifying his belief that we must work with the world around us to create a better future, acknowledging that gravity is not the only force guiding us.
Overall, the song Gravity presents an insightful and imaginative reflection on the world around us, questioning our relationship with the forces that unseen and not always rational. The lyrics provide an allegorical narrative that inspires the listener to look beyond the physical world and take a different perspective on the complex forces that govern it.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a blind man who hears angels
There is a visually impaired individual who hears messages from ethereal beings
He hears them whispering in sacked potatoes
He perceives divine murmurs in thorny sacks of spuds
And from the curly leaves of blooming pants
He discerns celestial voices in the wavy foliage of burgeoning flora
And in the winding tracks of crawling ants
He detects celestial communication in the meandering trails of creeping insects
He stands outside, under the sky
He positions himself in the open air, beneath the vast expanse of atmosphere
Listening to starlight drifting by
He tunes into the sound of luminous particles passing through the sky
Because gravity is not the only force at work
The natural pull of objects on one another is not the sole dynamic at play
In this world
On our planet
Just like gypsy moths and firebugs
Similar to the behavior of certain insect species
Circle around a shining bulb
Moths and bugs swirl in orbit around a bright light source
The blind man dreams of drifting away
The individual without sight longs to float off into the void
Into the darkness of outer space
Moving towards the obsidian expanse beyond our planet
And when he walks the city streets
During times when he navigates urban landscapes
He sprinkles the sidewalks with apple seeds
He distributes little seeds from this fruit trees on the urban pavement
Because gravity is not the only force at work
The way objects integrate with one another is about more than the powerful force of gravity
In this world
In our collective existence
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
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