Consumer Guide Album

Handsome Family: Down in the Valley [Independent, 1999]
The reason these alt-country cult heroes stir up so much humbug is that when Rennie Sparks's lyrics don't settle for "dark," or Brett Sparks's music for lo-fi dirge, they can be miraculous. Of course Brett's no Acuff or Haggard; his static baritone barely negotiates the notes. But on this putatively Ireland-only best-of, he and his wordless wife quietly claim traditional country music for the surreal, the mordant, and the psychotic. They require attentive listening. Give it to them and you'll leave a different if not necessarily happier person. A-