Welcome to the best damn Silver Jews record ever. Through 2008, that is because who knows what the future will bring? For today, LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, LOOKOUT SEA!

What makes it such a powerful Silver Jews listening experience? More powerful even than TANGLEWOOD NUMBERS? To begin with, our tour guide to the void is David Berman, pointing out spots where some dreams died and other candy-colored conceits were conceived. All a-sweat and working, rumbling with life and humility like old Johnny Cash, hes almost alone at the top of What Is Not But Could Be If. Then
the band comes in (Silver Jews vets Cassie Berman, Tony Crow, Brian Kotzur,Peyton Pinkerton and William Tyler), wafting from next door before kicking the lights out. Their opening trot deceives us into fantasies of easing into Bermans latest hot bath. But no dice D.C.B.s got a head full of steam and smoke, as evinced by the antic pistol-pumping rhymes n reasons of Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer.

Silver Jews make quintessentially American popular music but Suffering Jukebox, and My Pillow is the Threshold strike deep into the worldwide realm of the Chart-Worthy Song. This is the sound that sold out countless shows across the globe on the first-ever Silver Jews tour back in 2005 and 2006. This is a sound for all nations. Witness the wide-hearted power of the chorus of Strange Victory, Strange
Defeat or the ear-pleasuring chime of Open Field (a Maher Shalal Hash Baz cover!), which will recall to old-timers their footloose days of R.E.M. fandom before the rest of the world knew or cared or didnt care anymore. Here the urgent burst of life and how to live it is realized! Days of 80s90s flavor are aflame again in these tunes.

For LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, LOOKOUT SEAs epic centerpiece, look no further than San Francisco, B.C. A panorama of music history is on display behind Bermans fable of dovetailing fates, featuring the ominous appearance of Mr. Games a Merry Pranksters version of Street Hassle, if you will. As ever, history is longer than we think. Classic Silver Jews-isms signal our arrival into Candy Jail, an institution
overflowing with assorted titular sweets as well as a few bitter treats too. Suddenly the sky is overhead as the breeze ruffs our hair and Party Barge, is merrily launched. Its back to a state of nature for the finale, and with the realization that We Might Be Looking for the Same Thing, along with all our other human feelings, we swing back to our local jungle, waving goodbye to D.C.B. and his bunch, edified,
emulsified, intensified, stronger, ready. Uncanny! Excellent! An essential product of the times! A new and necessary album from Silver Jews! LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, LOOKOUT SEA.