Search - Czars :: Before But Longer

Exclusive import edition of 2000 album includes 3 bonus tracks, 'For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her', 'Strange' & 'Song To The Siren'. Given that Denver-based five-piece the Czars are so deeply marked by a sense of good taste & musical adventure, it makes great sense that they should have been signed to a label founded by Simon Raymonde & Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. The voice of singer John William Grant is an exceptionally moving cross between Michael Stipe & American Music Club's Mark Eitzel, possessed of an innocence & clarity not often heard since the Sixties & psychedelic folk or at least since Michael Murphey. It's only later that the class of the backing is noticed, a commendably restrained mix of acoustic folk & heavily distorted rock, its pace & tone altering artfully to create atmospheres that can be gloomy, oceanic or genuinely fierce. Haunting, touching, & truly distinguished, a must for fans of both Red House Painters & Tim Buckley.