Damien Jurado

Item: Postcards and Audio Letters
Author: Justin W. Jones

Postcards and Audio Letters

(2000)

Reviewed by Justin W. Jones

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Label ChapelleTNI / Made in MexicoThe Phantom TollboothJune 2000

experimental spoken word

Fans of the indie rock/folk hero, Damien Jurado are in for a surprise. He's traded his guitar for a Walkman, he traded his heartfelt ballads, for anthems of conversation, he traded his rock star status, for that of a peeping tom. And for those of you who don't know what this album is about let me explain.

This album has no singing, no music, and no Damien. Reports are that Damien has been going through the piles of used tapes at local thrifts, with a Walkman in hand, and has been collecting conversations, that were left on the tapes, and then abandoned. And this album is a compilation of those conversations. There are audio letters between lovers in days gone by, there are messages left on answering machines from an over zealous lovesick man, there are drunken ramblings from a family experimenting with their "cassette recorder", and finally a sad argument between a divorced couple fighting over their child.

This is the ultimate in "invasion of privacy", and it never felt so good. The genius of the project was not the compilation of the conversations, but rather the selection. For some reason you can see yourself in these people's shoes. Anyone that's been broken hearted can relate to the first conversation, as he tries to reason out his feelings and his pride, you too feel his anxious emotions. And anyone starting out in a promising relationship can relate to the chap that's obsessed with his new flame. At times you will feel embarrassed at the raw emotion that's recorded, just like when you reach the part of the movie, when the hero embarrasses himself, and you feel your face blush. That is all captured on this album, and is done discreetly.

The downside to this album is that at times it can be downright boring. With the first conversation reaching almost thirty minutes, and the speaker is as monotone as one can get, you wonder if this album can also be used to treat insomnia. The short, curt conversations are the most stimulating, and thought provoking and reveal as much about the characters as the long one, if not more.

Along with the compact disc you get five postcards inside. These postcards are blurry polaroids, quite like what you would find on an old Sebadoh album. There's a postcard with Damien on the front, telephone line, lamps and so on. These just add the "art" factor of this album. In some ways "Postcards and Audio Letters" is genius, the sheer concept of the album is an amazing act. In other ways you have to second guess the "art factor" and realize that it gets boring. The idea behind the album, far surpasses the material inside the album, it left me craving, "Simple Hello."

2.5 tocks