Field Studies
The audacious concept of Quasi--a divorced couple playing mournful yet sometimes hilariously embittered songs on only keyboard or guitar and drums--is nicely at odds with the power and catchiness they generate. On their fourth album, formerHeatmiserbassist Sam Coomes and indefatigableSleater-Kinneydrummer Janet Weiss fill their sound out with a varied palette of keyboard textures and, on two cuts, even a string section. Coomes twistsSurf's Up-eraBeach Boysstyle on the deceptively sunny "Under a Cloud," asks "How many hours can a minute hold?" on the sweeping "Me and My Head," and even gets momentarily positive on "Smile." Weiss, for her part, contributes "Two by Two," a brief, beautiful romance postmortem. Stripped down as it may be, Quasi's music is as elegant asRufus Wainwright's baroque pop, and as magically pained.--Rickey Wright