Calexico - Carried To Dust Album Review

Album review of Carried To Dust by Calexico.

Led by the creative force of Arizona-based duo Joey Burns and John Convertino, Calexico use elements from various genres and continents to create music that is both wonderfully eclectic and worldly. This visionary approach to music making is applied to the bands wonderful sixth album, Carried To Dust.

Calexico's latest offering is awash with beautiful layers and a flabbergasting underlying ghostly sheen that resonates throughout the entire record. The cinematic production, it has to be said, falls nothing short of mesmerizing.

Fifteen track albums can be often guilty of throwing up a few expected fillers, but in the case of the Carried To Dust we have something that threatens to break the mould. From the oriental & spiritualistic tendencies of new single 'Two Silver Trees', the slightly unsettling, yet strangely beautiful 'Man Made Lake', the wildly infectious 'Writers Holiday' or the soft melancholic ambience of closer 'Contention City', there are many highlights and very little in the way of disappointing moments.

In the end, Carried To Dust is a wonderfully consistent record with inventive genre mashing and an overwhelming sense of warmth provided by the contrasting mixture of intricate and thick layers. Is it one of the strongest records of year? I'd certainly say so.

Colin Burrill