Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band
13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
Release Date: Mar 25, 2008
Genre(s): Rock, Experimental
Record label: Constellation
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Album Review: 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band
Excellent, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
It's not all sound and fury, of course. There are enough quiet moments amidst all the chaos. "1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound" ends with a gracefully restrained coda, and 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons comes down from its truly aggressive start to a contemplative middle section only to build to another explosive climax, twice. Still, even as the band tries to play it quietly, the noise comes insistently bubbling to the surface, as in the more traditionally Silver Mount Zion-esque "Black Water Bowled/ Engine Broke Blues." The closing "blindblindblind," meanwhile, starts quietly and is almost lovely, and then builds to another raucous finale, only this time the band sound not angry or rioting, but uplifting and almost rapturous.
Based on rating 7.0/10
www.cstrecords.com The band that always changes its name to reflect a new project and shifts in membership is back. Just as the original members remain (Efrim Menuck, Thierry Amar, and Sophie Trudeau) so does the Silver Mountain bit of their moniker. For 2008, they’re now a Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band, but from here on out, we’ll just refer to them as SMZ for brevity’s and my typing fingers’ sake.
Opinion: Very Good
The strain of post-rock that Silver Mt. Zion, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and heavier counterparts like Mogwai came to represent over the past 15 years is often cited for its propensity – at least in theory – to accompany or suggest cinematic drama. It seemed that in the first half of the ’00s, such epic-bent bands were significant reference points.