Howe Gelb “Paradise Here Abouts”

As far as tried/true rock gimmicks go, adding a choir to a song is relatively harmless–more obvious than, say, leaving in studio chatter at the start of a song, but much more “authentic” than, say, choosing a cover version as your first single. The sound of many voices uniting as one, can take even the most banal of material and elevate it heavenward. There are enough examples of choir-rock to make a board game–Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is”, Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” Melanie’s hippie anthem “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)”, Faith No More’s “Just A Man”, and the New Pornographers’ “Breakin’ the Law” are, in order, the ones that spring to my mind. These are very different types of music that used different types of choirs for different effects, but they do have one thing in common–they all appeal to me, like a lot. I’m a sucker for a choir in a rock song.

Howe Gelb, late of Giant Sand and later of last year’s dust-rock comp Arizona Amp and Alternator, and who probably gives this guy a half-wood, takes the choral route on his new solo record ‘Sno Angel Like You, recording with the Voices of Praise gospel choir. It’s a gimmick, but it works well with Gelb’s material—without the backing voices, this would sound an awful lot like an upbeat Smog record. I can’t call myself an expert on Giant Sand, but this doesn’t sound like Giant Sand. “Paradise Here Abouts” (mp3) sounds like it’s being delivered in a dusty rural church by a pastor who looks like Tommy Lee Jones, wearing a deceptively expensive but still gaudy suit, with thick mutton chops and a thin mustache.

‘Sno Angel Like You and Thrill Jockey Records are in cahoots.