FEATURING BIRDS

Amazon.com Sam Coomes's ruminations have turned decidedly glum as he mulls over his own decay. Fortunately, he is also a savvy student of pop music; a life-long lover of the British Invasion, particularly the Kinks and early Pink Floyd, so even his darkest mutterings come baked in a tasty, if somewhat flaky, crust. Right off the bat, Sam is sounding the alarm of complacency with some keyboard savagery in "Our Happiness Is Guaranteed," a piece of lobotomized optimism about burying your head in the sand in order to achieve peace of mind. "The Happy Prole" is a short but devastating song about work with lines like "You need the money so you've got to play it dumb/But if you play it long enough, that's just what you'll become." On "Sea Shanty" Sam watches the days pass like empty boats as his own vessel sails to oblivion. "Life is dull/Life is gray/At its best it's just OK/But I'm happy to report/Life is also short," he acknowledges in the unaccountably zippy "California." Time and again Sam warns about the ease of falling into a workaday rut, which he sees as a kind of living death; he usually refers to these people as ghosts, while those imposing the work are vampires, and the folks who accept it all without a struggle are machines. An oversimplification, or the unblinking truth? This might be too much nasty medicine if the music didn't engage so consistent. This is easily Quasi's most accessible--even blatantly pop--album, aided and abetted by the colossal drumming of Sam's former spouse, Janet Weiss. Featuring "Birds" is a stunning record that looks the reaper square in the eye. --John Chandler Review Sam Coomes--50 percent of Quasi, alongside Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss--is depressed. Like, really depressed ... on Featuring "Birds" he s become Mr. Morose.... Quasi s sound--drenched in fuzzed- out keyboards and loopy tempos, like a warped carnival--cuts against the grain of Coomes s obsessive sadness, elevating it to the level of black humor. And when Weiss contributes vocal harmonies, the entire room brightens up. -- Spin