The Czars- Before...But Longer (2000) MP3 & FLAC -For Douxee-

"I'd like to get in your skin, to see what I could see from there."

Technically speaking, Before...But Longer was The Czars third album, having self-released two earlier albums that gained some attention in France but generally kept The Czars flailing in obscurity in the States. "Discovered" by two former Cocteau Twins, Simon Raymonde & Robin Guthrie, and subsequently signed to their fledgling label, The Czars perfected their singular sound and produced the kind of dark, haunting album their earlier work only hinted at. This is evident from the first track on  Before...But Longer, "Val," which opens with a laconic bass soloing the song's melody until John Grant's mournfully enveloping falsetto steps forth to draw the song upwards, all the while backed by the stunning voice of Paula Frazer. "Get Used to It" has a catchy country-folk feel that belies the song's depressive lyrics, and is easily one of The Czars finest moments. This is the album on which The Czars came into their own, and while they hit some greater heights on their next album, The Ugly People vs. the Beautiful People, Before...But Longer is arguably their masterpiece.

Paula Frazer- A Place Where I Know: 4-Track Songs 1992-2002 (2003) MP3 & FLAC

"By some strange design I feign to believe that this image was mine."

While Paula Frazer's otherworldly Patsy Cline croon has gained her some attention over the years, her songwriting skills have long been overlooked. Part of this is due to the slightly heavy-handed production on Tarnation's two studio albums (this is even more the case on her solo albums), which tended to push her subtle melodies and evocative lyrics down in the mix. A Place Where I Know: 4-Track Songs 1992-2002 offers the chance to hear some of Frazer's best songs shorn of all the dusty bottom-of-a-well reverb of the studio recordings. What becomes evident after hearing many of these demos is that Frazer's voice and lyrical ability are more than up to the task of conveying a sense of tragic desolation on their own. While the recording quality of these demos varies a bit, this never gets in the way of the music, and in some cases, the tape hiss actually adds to the ethereal creepiness of the recordings.

Tarnation- Live (1996) (French Promo) MP3 & FLAC -For Chris-

"There is a restless weight upon me, in the shape of things to come."

Here's a rare Tarnation EP that was released in France as a promo in 1996 by 4AD. It is comprised of seven tracks recorded live in 1995 at Festival Fnac/Inrockuptibles, which makes this pretty desirable given that live recordings of this band (especially of 1995 vintage) are few and far between.

Tarnation- Mirador (1997) MP3 & FLAC

"What secrets lie behind an awful shade of blue?"

Yes, some of the dusty haze of Gentle Creatures has been lost to Mirador's more polished production; however, this only serves to bring Paula Frazer's breathtaking vocals into clearer focus, which, coupled with a more pronounced Country (as in Carter Family) influence in the songwriting, brings new vistas of dark desolation to Tarnation's sound. While the songwriting on Mirador is consistently excellent, special mention must be made of the cover of The Nightcrawlers' classic, "Little Black Egg." Great music for driving a barren desert at night.

The Czars- The Ugly People vs. the Beautiful People (2001) MP3 & FLAC

"It's just a side effect of loving you, a nasty soundtrack to the city."

I first discovered The Czars in the bargain bin of a Berkeley record store during my college years. Clacking, bleary-eyed, through the endless cutouts and unwanted, discounted dreck that inevitably accumulates in such places, the album cover above immediately caught my eye, so I payed 75 cents for the honor of hearing The Czars for the first time (incidentally, I managed to discover Joe Henry the same way). This band was a fixture of the criminally under-publicized Denver Southern Gothic music scene of the 90s and early 2000s, a scene also home to 16 Horsepower, Woven Hand, Jay Munly, and Slim Cessna's Auto Club. On The Ugly People vs. the Beautiful People, The Czars were able to perfect their unique chamber-lounge-jazz-folk sound, once again allowing John Grant's languorous vocals to take center stage, but unlike their debut record, the song-writing is consistently great and the production provides an atmospheric intangibility that works wonders for these dark ballads of heartache and spiritual despair (although I could have done without the auto-tune vocal effect on "What Used to Be a Human"). A little Paula Frazer mixed in doesn't hurt either.

Tarnation- Gentle Creatures (1995) MP3 & FLAC

"Where the gentle creatures roam, that is the place I call my home. You know I'll miss you when I'm gone, but I must be moving on."

Back in the mid-90s, a time when Alt. Country was not yet considered an anachronism and Indie chanteuse Neko Case was playing drums in a Punk band while going to art school, there was a band called Tarnation fronted by another ex-Punk drummer with a big country voice: Paula Frazer. Even more so than Case, Frazer is a torch singer, saturating every syllable with as much darkness and yearning as she can muster. The obvious touchstone here is Patsy Cline, and while Cline's iconic status is well-deserved, Frazer has a voice even Cline might have envied. Gentle Creatures is not for those who like their Alt. Country reverential (meaning traditional); this album was released on 4AD after all. You'll find no gentle acoustic ballads and sentimental odes to simpler times here; rather, Frazer's Gothic imagery and smoldering vocals coupled with spaghetti-western guitars and atmospheric production all coalesce into something truly "Alt." A forgotten classic by any standards.