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Review Summary: Deep thoughts and good music I feel something coming on, a disease or a song
Bill Callahan’s latest is entitled YTI⅃AƎЯ (it’s “Reality” flipped over, get it?). Like his usual work, the album falls into “love it or hate it” territory, with Callahan half-singing and half-talking his way through philosophical lyrics. Here, there are three predominant concerns: animals, dreams, and death, with discussion of said topics producing moods ranging from faintly humorous to gut-wrenchingly sad. Callahan’s lyrics flow from the grotesque ( “we warmed our hands in the corpse of a dead horse”) to effortlessly affecting ( “I started writing your death song long before you were gone”). It’s important to note too that the musical accompaniment is unusually engaging as well, from the gentle folk of “First Bird” to energetic numbers like “Partition” and “Natural Information” to the spacey experimentalism of “Planets”.
I wanted to put on your favorite song, a gift sealed thirty years on
Callahan provides the listener with a bunch of stunners on this album, but it’s doubtful that anything tops “Lily”. Its depiction of a dying loved one is potent, at once deeply touching and unflinching. Perhaps the highest praise which can be given is that it reminds me of (very different act) Gang Of Youths’ “You In Everything”, both in subject matter and in its combination of the thoughtful and the straightforward.
In her dream she is coyote, which of course is what she used to be
“Coyotes” is another top-notch tune, at once a purely pretty song and one with enough lyrical complexity that I come away with a different interpretation with every listen. The cited lyric, in reference to an aging and asleep dog, is characteristic. It never fails to hit me in the heart, but whether Callahan is referencing the idea of reincarnation, loss of youth, or that dreams are a form of reality (or all of the above) isn’t clear, and all the better.
Last one at the party, you always said he had to go
Appropriately, this review will end with a discussion of the album closer. “Last One At The Party” isn’t as expansive as many of its tracklist counterparts, but it taps a font of peculiar melancholy to produce a fitting ending. The quoted line above evokes a sense of pathos when delivered in Callahan’s somber baritone which exceeds whatever you’d get from a simple word-by-word reading. In the final analysis, that’s what is exceptional about YTI⅃AƎЯ, despite the record running slightly long and a few songs getting a bit repetitive: the lyrics and the arrangements are great, sure, but it’s the singer-songwriter’s ability to make us feel “it” which matters. In the (very funny) comedy show Review, main character Forrest MacNeil intones the tagline “life: it’s literally all we have” during each episode’s intro. Well, in this case, the music is about reality, or at least some twisted-around version of it. These are songs which manage to pull a sort of magic and meaning from various angles of the mundane. After all, reality is all we’ve got.
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Album Rating: 4.2
Album rules hard, but I found it rather difficult to write about.
As such, I went with a different format for this one, I wanted to center some of my favorite lyrics as they are the centerpiece for enjoying this album. Hopefully this doesn't feel too choppy.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Reads fine to me, nicely done. I think I'd have a difficult time writing about this too. Really enjoying this. I've listened to Smog/Bill for many years casually, on and off, and then like 2-3 years ago something just clicked and he became one of my absolute favourite songwriters. It's also when I really dove into his lyrics. I think "Coyotes" is one of the best songs he's written. Also I love the opening line of "Everyway", which you put at the top. Lots of great words here.
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haven't even bothered to listen to his past couple of releases... just never really got into any of his post-Smog stuff like I did a lot of Smog albums
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Outstanding album, top five Callahan no doubt
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Partition to Coyotes is just such a good four song run - best four song run of 2022? Very likely
Good review btw 
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
I may check this one. Skipped the previous one
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Callahan ranked:
1. Shepherd sheepskin
2. Reality
3. Knock Knock
4. Sometimes eagle
5. Red apple
6. Dream river
7. Gold record
8. A river ain’t
9. Dongs
10. Doctor
11. Apocalypse
12. Supper
13. Rain on lens
14. Wild love
15. Woke whale heart
16. Julius caeser
Maybe controversial
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
That makes my Callahan life pretty easy then! Really love Shepherd
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Shepherd is strange in that it's almost like two 4 out of 5 Callahan albums back to back....but magic happens when it all runs together. Usually when you say a double album is two lots of something that would detract - so two 4/5 albums back to back might end up a 3.5 - but this is that rare instance where it equals a 5 instead, it just flows so well and rambles to perfection.
This album is better than either standalone 'half' of Shepherd...but overall Shepherd just is amazing for what it is.
'Knock Knock' is essential too though, almost a concept album, every song's a winner on that one and 'River Guard' is probably his best tune.
| | | Album Rating: 4.2
Thanks guys! Gold Record was pretty strong but this is definitely a step up.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
This album is better than either standalone 'half' of Shepherd...but overall Shepherd just is amazing for what it is.
SHEPHERD (in toto) runs only one minute longer than REALITY lol
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah I do find it funny that Shepherd is a double due to the sheer quantity of songs while this is practically the same length. It’s an interesting comparison though, very different songwriting approaches between the two.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I never realised the lengths were that close...still, that one definitely feels different due to having just so many songs for a relatively mainstream folk/indie release. It feels like a double album, emphasised even more by it initially being released in EP length 'quarters'.
Take any two quarters and make them an album and I'd rate it a 4, it's strange, but the full album is definitely a 5, it's legendary.
These two albums are pretty close in quality for me anyway, I'd say maybe this album could lose one song ('Horses'?, even though it's solid enough) - despite the number of songs 'Shepherd' feels in even less need of a trim for me.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah I wouldn’t say this one drags so much as takes its time but it could probably lose 1-2 tracks…but then as you say “The Horse” is the only one I might not really miss. On balance I might still like the Gold Record a tad more though.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Gold Record had a few more issues for me but I need to revisit that one.
I definitely rate a couple of songs here higher than anything on that one - as much as The Mackenzies was a successful tearjerker
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Ranked/Rated:
1. Naked Souls [5]
2. Coyotes [5]
3. Partition [5]
4. Lily [4.5]
5. Drainface [4.5]
6. First Bird [4.5] grown on me
7. Natural Information [4] grown off me a smidge
8. Bowevil [4] grown off me a smidge
9. Planets [4] might go up a bit
10. Everyway [4] this is really good, shows strength of the album ranking so low
11. Last One at the Party [4] def a 4 now, like it a lot
12. The Horse [4] most forgettable but still solid while playing, poss a 3.5
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Gold Record definitely sits a bit weirdly between this and Shepherd in retrospect, in many ways it’s the most straightforward of the post-Smog albums (haven’t heard Wake so I guess excepting maybe that one), 10 songs, 40 minutes, very much a classic “jukebox record” as you’ve labeled things before (perhaps that title is referencing this?), and it might be his most standardly country/blues album in that respect too (consider the “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash” intro, song named after Ry Cooder, song called “Cowboy”). I can and do very much dig sprawlers like this and Shepherd but Gold Record is a very Boney album. Perhaps I should fill the gap and review that one…
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I still rate Gold Record a 4.5 and above such respected Callahan discs as Apocalypse, A River Ain’t and Dongs of Sevotion so I do respect it a lot
| | | Album Rating: 3.7
Found Apocalypse on vinyl at my local Goodwill, hands down my best thrift shop discovery and still my favorite Bill Callahan. Just starting this and it's got a lot of promise in that first track, can't wait to hear the rest.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Good find dad, nice cover art for a vinyl purchase
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