SILVER JEWS - The Natural Bridge LP

“No, I don’t really wanna die...

...I only wanna die in your eyes!"

So begins the 2nd Silver Jews album. Accompanied by a snare drum pick-up note, we are immediately catapulted into the world through the eyes of David Berman.

There's not much one can say about Berman that hasn't already been said. "The tortured poet who defined the slacker ethic of the hopeless Gen-X political climate," or perhaps (unfortunately) more often, "The guy who hung out with Stephen and Bob from Pavement."

Despite the latter tag, Berman's own music seems to be the flipside of this slacker ethic one may associate with Pavement. Instead of jolly, grass-smoking guitar licks and clever one-liners that seem to encompass most of rock's history, we are given the seedy underbelly with understated guitar parts that sound as close to water as one could possible achieve, and one-liners that are anywhere between harrowing and tear-jerking.