Music Feedback
New This WeekAround TownMusicFilmArtTheaterNews & FeaturesFood & DrinkAstrology
  HOME
NEW THIS WEEK
EDITORS' PICKS
LISTINGS
NEWS & FEATURES
MUSIC
FILM
ART
BOOKS
THEATER
DANCE
TELEVISION
FOOD & DRINK
ARCHIVES
LETTERS
PERSONALS
CLASSIFIEDS
ADULT
ASTROLOGY
PHOENIX FORUM DOWNLOAD MP3s

  E-Mail This Article to a Friend
Black Heart Procession
AMORE DEL TRÓPICO
(TOUCH AND GO)

Stars graphics

It’s fitting that Pall Jenkins & Tobias Nathanial’s fourth album as Black Heart Procession should open with a 10-second snippet of musical climax titled "The End of Love," because the rest of Amore del Trópico grapples with the standard laundry list of post-relationship neuroses, as almost all of this duo’s songs do. Not exactly a prime foundation for an infectious pop album, yet Jenkins and Nathanial have created just that, though it’s suffused with the kind of dark moods you’d expect from a band called Black Heart Procession. With the help of no fewer than 12 guest musicians to buttress the band’s original stripped and gloomy sound, Black Heart Procession move on from the deserted atmospheres of their previous releases to much richer musical terrain full of clanging pianos, ominous organs, musical saws, and twangy guitars. The effect is every bit as melancholy and unnerving as the duo’s previous work together. But the augmented musical arsenal on Amore del Trópico helps bring out Black Heart Procession’s compellingly off-kilter pop sensibility in songs like "Did You Wonder," "Only One Way," and the Latin-tinged title track.

BY JOHN LEFLER

Issue Date: January 2 - 9, 2003
Back to the Music table of contents.

  E-Mail This Article to a Friend