By "Balaklava," their second album (you can download a track from their first in Monday's post), the obviously derivative elements in Pearls Before Swine's music were fading and the distinctive nature of Tom Rapp's poetic vision was coming fully into focus. Lines like "The translucent carriages/ Drawing morning in/ Dawn inside their pockets/ Like a whisper on the wind" work well on the page, but even better in Rapp's quavering voice, which sometimes resembles that of his label mate Ed Askew and his production decisions -- panning his singing voice entirely to the right on this song, with whispered responses from the left ("Jesus raised the dead/ But who will raise the living?"), and especially that ghost of a doubled voice an octave above that joins in near the end -- are stunning.
-- T.B.
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