Damon and Naomi: The Earth Is Blue : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

From their early days in the influential slowcore trio Galaxie 500, ethereal indie rockers Damon and Naomi have done their best work with a third wheel. On The Earth Is Blue, the duo revisit the partnership forged half a decade ago with Michio Kurihara, guitarist for the Japanese psych-folk band Ghost. So critical are Kurihara's contributions to the year-in-the-making disc (and first on Damon and Naomi's own label) that the drummer and bassist actually rebuilt their studio to accommodate the tracks he created, expanding it to twenty-four tracks rather than cutting any of his gently rambling guitar lines. Kurihara's sweet swells turn into fuzzed-out jams ("A Second Life," "House of Glass") alongside Naomi's fluid bass and wraithlike vocals and Damon's feathery cymbal play and murky poetry ("Ueno Station"'s "Whiskey pours like teardrops fall /The gods receive them both the same"). While a version of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" comes across as icy, the group fairs better with a misty take on Caetano Veloso's "Araca Azul," turning its own title track into a companion piece by linking both songs into a beautifully expansive, brass-tinged excursion.