Lambchop: "If Not I'll Just Die"

The best thing about Lambchop has always been the juxtaposition of the elaborate, almost grandiose orchestral style of the sometimes double-digits-deep band, and singer/songwriter Kurt Wagner’s understated delivery and lyrics. Wagner’s focus on the small, genuinely weird minutiae of life (some of How I Quit Smoking‘s [1996] lines about cheese dip and fries come to mind) manages to draw the listener in intimately, while the sound of the band itself has no problem filling a stage or a room. Throughout their career, Wagner and Co. have been prolific and remarkably consistent, and if this first single is any indication, their 11th record Mr. M (coming in February) won’t deviate from this track.

“If Not I’ll Just Die” starts off with sweeping strings like a Sinatra song, but just when you expect crooning, Wagner comes in with his famously clipped, dry delivery. The sentimentality of the music is undermined by Wagner’s shrugging f-bomb in the first line: “Don’t know what the fuck they talk about.” The rest of the song glides along, a beautiful, cozy melody winding around deadpan, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. “Grandpa’s coughing in the kitchen,” he half-sings, “But the strings sound good / Maybe add some flute / But how do you get the cups out / from up there?” Though Wagner occasionally gets soulful on its transition “Oh-oh-oh’s,” mostly the song just rests on these half-baked observations, interrupted by self-referencing and sly wit.

When I started getting into Lambchop just last year, I was struck immediately by how unique their voice was—not just Wagner’s, but their collective voice as a band. And “If Not I’ll Just Die,” like so much of their work, is frequently amusing, occasionally enthralling, and never tired or ordinary.