Calexico's new Feast of Wire is pretty much composed of the same base elements that made Hot Rail such a sad but thrilling ride. Yet the mood has shifted slightly. And, fittingly for a band fronted by indie rock's tightest bass and drum duo, the change is in the rhythms. Even the most ambient tracks on The Hot Rail had a desperado momentum, and the album's sequencing (a Hazlewood-esque ballad followed by a spaced-out instrumental followed by a mariachi interlude) also suggested going. But on Feast of Wire the mariachi and post-rock rhythms are more integrated into all the songwriting, making the album feel both looser and more seamless.
Thus, too, the change in atmosphere: There's a stillness to even the album's most driving tracks, which are crowded around the starting line. By the end, the songs are all languorous and open-ended; it's as though Hot Rail's running man stopped for a moment and took a good look around and realized that between here and there is better than either here or there. Feast of Wire settles into a sense of rest, a little uneasy, to be sure, but placid nonetheless. A sense of nowhereness--where the only movement is the sky rolling above and the ground shifting beneath your feet. And it's still sad, but God, it's still beautiful.
