Regard the End

Amazon.com
While lead singer and principal songwriter Robert Fisher is obsessed with folk archetypes--the drowned and the damned, murder-ballad ghosts, and gospel sojourners--and liberally taps traditional sources, these dark, forbidding songs aren't merely arcane or gothic. "Sufferings going to come to everyone some day," Fisher chants along with Jess Klein, and we could only wish the song didn't speak to the here and now. Arrangements begin with folk-friendly guitar, mandolin, and violin, only to rise into soundscapes worthy of Lambchop, if not Tricky. The 11 members (not counting seven guests) of this collective love eerie, organic atmospheres but they love melody even more. Slide guitar plays against grand piano, viola moans around melodica, and Fisher's voice--ranging from baritone to middle-of-the-earth--puts the sting, and even some redemption, back into his fatalistic visions. --Roy Kasten

Product Description:
Willard Grant Conspiracy, the band fronted by Robert Fisher with as many as 31 rotating members throughout the world, has completed its fifth "official" full-length album, kicking off their relationship with Kimchee Records. Regard The End follows 2000's Everything's Fine and previous albums Mojave (1999), Flying Low (1998), and 3 am Sunday @ Fortune Otto's (1996) with several key differences. Fisher's songwriting has begun its transition into weighty subject matters such as death, hope and faith, as traditional songs meld with new Fisher compositions in such a way that it's impossible to discern which is which. "River In The Pines" from 1865 sits beside "Beyond The Shore," a new composition, and the two are strangely unified. Additionally, the new album marks the departure of guitarist Paul Austin as a full-time member, although he appears on the disc. It was mostly recorded in Slovenia, a place the band happened to be at the moment the album wanted to be born.! Eighteen musicians were enlisted to play on Regard the End, among them Chris Eckmen of The Walkabouts as well as Kristen Hersh (Throwing Muses), Blake Hazard, and Jess Klein, all of whom contribute vocals on the new album. Using a varied palate of acoustic and electric instruments including viola, trumpet, wheezing pump organs, grand pianos, violin, and acoustic and electric guitars, the record unfolds itself to the listener in layers. Its songs of universal emotions are told with a mixture of personal experience and enough storytelling to allow the listener to inhabit them with his or her own experience.

"In a way, the album is a meditation on morality," Fisher says. "The theme is a classic in all art--how you relate to your death is how you define your life. Most of the songs are about grief and loss and coming to terms. It's not a blues record but it has cathartic effects. I write the songs and the band makes them breathe and live. And then the audience brings their own experience to bear in the songs. It doesn't matter whether we play them in Sweden, Germany or Texas-- people seem to find commonality."

Upon its European release Uncut magazine named Regard the End its "Album of the Month" and at year's end gave it "Top 5 Albums of 2003" honors, declaring, "Regard The End is the first Willard Grant album to truly immerse yourself in. In ditching most of their traditional band ethic, they've tapped into the finest folk gothic traditions of death, suffering, misery and hardship and fashioned a paradoxically uplifting, transformative record of extraordinary power."

Regard the End

Tracks:

River In The Pines
The Trials Of Harrison Hayes
Beyond The Shore
The Ghost Of The Girl In The Well
Twistification
Another Man Is Gone
Soft Hand
Rosalee
Fare Thee Well
Day Is Passed And Gone
The Suffering Song

Amazon.com

While lead singer and principal songwriter Robert Fisher is obsessed with folk archetypes--the drowned and the damned, murder-ballad ghosts, and gospel sojourners--and liberally taps traditional sources, these dark, forbidding songs aren't merely arcane or gothic. "Sufferings going to come to everyone some day," Fisher chants along with Jess Klein, and we could only wish the song didn't speak to the here and now. Arrangements begin with folk-friendly guitar, mandolin, and violin, only to rise into soundscapes worthy of Lambchop, if not Tricky. The 11 members (not counting seven guests) of this collective love eerie, organic atmospheres but they love melody even more. Slide guitar plays against grand piano, viola moans around melodica, and Fisher's voice--ranging from baritone to middle-of-the-earth--puts the sting, and even some redemption, back into his fatalistic visions. --Roy Kasten

Album Description

Willard Grant Conspiracy, the band fronted by Robert Fisher with as many as 31 rotating members throughout the world, has completed its fifth "official" full-length album, kicking off their relationship with Kimchee Records. Regard The End follows 2000's Everything's Fine and previous albums Mojave (1999), Flying Low (1998), and 3 am Sunday @ Fortune Otto's (1996) with several key differences. Fisher's songwriting has begun its transition into weighty subject matters such as death, hope and faith, as traditional songs meld with new Fisher compositions in such a way that it's impossible to discern which is which. "River In The Pines" from 1865 sits beside "Beyond The Shore," a new composition, and the two are strangely unified. Additionally, the new album marks the departure of guitarist Paul Austin as a full-time member, although he appears on the disc. It was mostly recorded in Slovenia, a place the band happened to be at the moment the album wanted to be born.! Eighteen musicians were enlisted to play on Regard the End, among them Chris Eckmen of The Walkabouts as well as Kristen Hersh (Throwing Muses), Blake Hazard, and Jess Klein, all of whom contribute vocals on the new album. Using a varied palate of acoustic and electric instruments including viola, trumpet, wheezing pump organs, grand pianos, violin, and acoustic and electric guitars, the record unfolds itself to the listener in layers. Its songs of universal emotions are told with a mixture of personal experience and enough storytelling to allow the listener to inhabit them with his or her own experience.

Customer Reviews:

No Anxiety of Influence.......2005-12-06

I don't sense any of Harold Bloom's 'anxiety of influence', in the work of Willard Grant Conspiracy. Rather, Fisher has used the Nic Cave template to fashion and fathom a body of work of equal conviction and intensity: brooding soundscapes that resonate from some dark longing for the winter solstice to interminably delay its thawing. In some ways, the music over the eight years since I encountered 'Flying Low' can best be heard as a continuum. It's a salve to play them successively. Strangely, this most recent set,'Regard The End' with its prophetically cast title and songlist, suggests an unremitting focus on funereal concerns. Yet it's possibly the most joyous and peaceful of Fisher's works. This isn't to suggest that his music is a downer. There's an intimate warmth to his approach that guarantees engagement. The blend of old-timey material with freshly composed stuff is impeccable. You can't pick which is which. The sound bites from the field, the mimetic employment of mandolin, banjo, and guitar are thrilling, and the voices richly epressive. I confess to finding Fisher's output more expansive and uplifting than Cave's sibilant sound.

A really great American band.......2004-03-06

This is one album that I simply can't get off my CD player. I bought it after hearing a review of it on NPR, simply because I liked the sound of the snippets I heard there. The snippets were not misleading. The Willard Grant Conspiracy really doesn't sound too much like anyone, though at the same time you will sometimes hear echoes of other performers. If pressed to describe what they sound like, I'd say two parts Nick Cave (later, religious Nick Cave), one part Ry Cooder singing songs from the Baptist hymnal, and one part Martin Stephenson, with a measure of Tom Waits, Thin White Rope, and Tindersticks thrown in. The pace is always slow and deliberate, the mood sober, and the themes vaguely moral and religious and tragic. Singer Robert Fisher sounds a lot like Nick Cave and has a similar singing style and range.

The sound of the band is largely acoustic in feel, even when they use electric instruments. Fiddle plays a big role in the sound, as well as subdued keyboards and acoustic guitars. But, again, the resemblance to Nick Cave is palpable: the sound might be subdued, but it is never peaceful. Even behind the most placid melodies and vocals there is an edginess, as if something bad either has happened or is destined to happen.

I don't dislike any of the songs on this album, and I like several of them a lot, so much that I love several without being able to say which I like most. I'd be hard pressed to have to select between the traditional sounding "Another Man is Gone," the eerie "The Ghost of the Girl in the Well," the tragically true "The Suffering Song," "The Trials of Harrison Hayes," or the compelling "River in the Pines."

I like this band so much that I definitely am going to try and catch them when they next hit Chicago. Anyone liking any of the artists I compared them to above will definitely enjoy this stuffy. It is just first rate music.

Regard the End
Average customer rating:

Everything's Fine Part Two

Regard the End
Willard Grant Conspiracy
Manufacturer: Uxb
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0000A3R0O
Release Date: 2003-06-19

Tracks:

River in the Pines
Trials of Harrison Hayes
Beyond the Shore
Ghost of the Girl in the Well
Twistification
Another Man Is Gone
Soft Hand
Rosalee
Fare Thee Well
Day Is Past and Gone
Suffering Song

Album Description

Uncut Album Of The Month! Their first album in almost three years, Regard The End, shows the band continuing to explore their own unique take on modern acoustic-electric music. Recorded in Ljubljana, Boston & London under the direction of principle songwr

Album Details

"regard the End" Shows the Band Continuting to Explore their Own Unique Take on Modern Acoustic Electric Music. The Album features Performances by Kristen Hirsch (Throwing Muses), Wilco Cohort Jess Klein, Chris Eckman (The Walkabouts) and Dennis Cronin (Lambchop).

Customer Reviews:

Everything's Fine Part Two.......2003-09-22

If you're already familiar with WGC, then your only question is probably whether or not this is worth import prices. It is, especially if you enjoyed their previous album, Everything's Fine. (But buy it directly from amazon.co.uk, not amazon.com)

If you're not familiar with WGC, then start with Everything's Fine or Mojave -- this album builds on those. The subject matter is often death, sadness, or loneliness, but the music and mood is anything but mournful. These songs are rich, emotive, and strangely upbeat -- in the spirit of Nick Cave's ballads or Crooked Fingers' Red Devil Dawn (check out that album if you haven't). Robert Fisher's deep baritone is wonderfully expressive and it's a testament to his songwriting ability that it's hard to tell the original songs on the album from the traditional ones. Folk music for the 21st century.

Music Album:

Music Album