“All of my people think I look strange,” confesses singer/songwriter/ guitarist/producer Jerry DeCicca with an inscrutable weariness, on “New Face,” one of 12 unhurried folk ballads on this Ohio band’s second album. It’s seemingly a reference to something he did for love, but it’s also about a general bewildered despair that’s more clearly articulated by Noel Sayre’s swooning violin. On songs like “Hope Island,” “Coats,” and the mesmerizing “Shake,” the Swans blend the mysterious and the plainspoken to create a sort of uncheery Appalachian chamber music. “Electricity sits on the hill,” DeCicca quietly exclaims in “Shake,” as if he’s observing an alien force of modern life. At its best, Change! evokes that melancholy story of a man adrift.
Now Hear This:The Black Swans – “Shake” DOWNLOAD MP3
