On its third release,
Brokeback brings the quiet. While
Stereolab's
Laetitia Sadier and
Mary Hansen contribute their exquisite vocals to a few tracks, they're mostly of the wordless sort, used more for spice or texture than as a main ingredient. One of those numbers, "In the Reeds," could almost be mistaken for an outtake from the bossa nova landmark
Getz/Gilberto featuring the similarly angelic-sounding
Astrud Gilberto.
Looks at the Bird is an otherwise instrumental affair with a few jazzy touches here and there. Sometimes it sounds like
Ennio Morricone, sometimes
the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Mostly it sounds like its own thing. Although six-string bass guitarist
Douglas McCombs has played with Chicago's
Eleventh Dream Day and
Pullman,
Bird sounds more like the work of
Tortoise, another post-rock combo with which he's been associated.
Brokeback, in the person of
McCombs and upright bassist
Noel Kupersmith, even takes on
Tortoise's "The Suspension Bridge at Iguazú Falls," as well as
Walter Schumann's "Pearl's Dream" from Charles Laughton's moody masterpiece The Night of the Hunter. The latter concludes the album and features a lovely vocal from
Hansen. It's a fitting testament to the singer, who perished in a traffic accident in late 2002.