The Books And The Way Out

The Books new album, The Way Outis a self fulfilling prophecy. You see this is quite simply THE WEIRDEST RECORD EVER. The Way Out is a collection of sound collages, cut and paste edits, bits, bobs, samples, sounds, clanks, bleeps, beeps, folk and lord only knows what else crammed together into some semblance of organization. It's chaotic, atonal at times, and strange in all the best ways. The Way Out isn't really music in a verse, chorus, verse sense but rather a barely strung together collection of sounds and thoughts.

Yes, The Way Ou is all a bit ramshackle and at times might just give you a headache. But, half the joy of listening to this record is trying to figure out what direction The Books are going to head off next and whether or not you can stave off that headache. The Way Outtries it's best to give you one though, because it oesn't really sit still for too long and it's as if it forgot to take it's Adderall for a month because the thing is so scattershot and jumpy that your head will spin. There are speeches here, folky intimate moment there, noisy passages to the side and just about everything in between. It's entertaining stuff that's not really listenable in a way normally accepted by humanity and I suppose that's what makes it fun.

If you're looking for something that's an alternative to the alternative, then The Books are for you. This is a group that sound as though they've been buried in their namesake for far too long and then took up music as a form of expressing all that they've learned. There's ALOT of information on The Way Out and it's so far out that it might not make it back. The Way Outis definitely one of the more adventuresome records out there and it's most definitely for the most adventurous of listeners only. Lady Ga Ga this is not.