VARIOUS ARTISTS
Mews Too: An Asthmatic Kitty Compilation
Asthmatic Kitty
· Sufjan Steven’s ever-growing family of misfits.
It would be diplomatic to say we’re all waiting for the latest tracks from the Asthmatic Kitty roster, the likes of Half-Handed Cloud, Liz Janes and Castanents all being fascinating players in the supposed new folk movement. It would be honest, on the other hand, to admit the real main attraction of Mews Too arrives in the form of the newest original from Sufjan Stevens since last summer’s Come On Feel the Illinoise!
Following appearances on just about every tribute album going (his take on the Beatles’ "What Goes On" is one of his finest moments – a lengthy hymnal reworking of John Fahey’s "Commemorative Transfiguration & Communion at Magruder Park" is not quite so necessary), Stevens’s stripped-back "Opie’s Funeral Song" retreads Seven Swans territory, the heartbreaking tale behind the death of the kid at school that nobody liked. "I was invited for once" alone makes for a killer chorus worthy enough to hold the other 23 tracks together.
Of the gathered guests, Royal City effortlessly toss off the old-school singalong "Burning Torch," while Bogs Visionary Orchestra’s "Everybody’s Broken" goes all "Rainy Day Women #12 & #35," damning just about everyone from "college grads" to those "missing legs." Mews Too serves as a killer mixtape, but like the finest of handmade compilations passed from one friend to the other, there’s always that one song you keep rewinding back to time and again. It’s no big surprise in this case that brother Sufjan comes out ahead.
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