Promised Works

• Artist: The For Carnation
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1997
• Type: Compilation (best of)
• Genre: Rock

Review

The For Carnation valued quality over quantity: they released just two EPs and a full-length album over the course of six years. The band's slim discography reflects Brian McMahan and company's painstaking, extremely restrained approach to making music, which straddled the border of slowcore and post-rock. The comparisons the band drew to McMahan's former group, the legendary Slint, and to other former Slint members' projects like Gastr del Sol, didn't really appreciate the For Carnation's sketches and studies in tension, release, and silence in their own right. The whispers and wide-open spaces in their songs were uniquely warm and intimate, drawing listeners in; if and when the guitars and vocals swelled, they had even more impact than they would've if the songs' dynamics were more typical. Promised Works, which collects the For Carnation's Matador EPs Fight Songs and Marshmallows, plays just as well as a full-length as the band's lone, self-titled album does. The tracks from Fight Songs prove that the For Carnation had their musical strategy mapped out from the start. "Get and Stay Get March"'s circular, sleepwalking coda, decorated with gentle strings chirping birds, is equally gorgeous and mysterious, while "How I Beat the Devil"'s false starts just add to the song's charm once its giddy guitars finally kick in. The songs from the For Carnation's second EP Marshmallows go darker and sparer, and while "Salo" might be too insular and meandering for its own good, tracks like the pretty, fragmented vignette "On the Swing" and the sweet-yet-spooky "Imyr, Marshmallows" show the range within the band's seemingly limited palette. They push even further with "I Wear the Gold"'s woozy guitars and intricate polyrhythms and the outstanding "Winter Lair," a study in whispers and guitars as spare as bare trees that captures snowy desolation with eerie perfection. Likewise, Promised Works captures the subtle, almost peripheral beauty of the For Carnation's small, but very close to perfectly formed body of work. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Grace Beneath the Pines	Andrew Bonacci, David Pajo, Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, Brian McMahan	The For Carnation	(7:43)
How I Beat the Devil	David Pajo, Andrew Bonacci, Brian McMahan, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs	The For Carnation	(1:36)
Get and Stay Get March	Andrew Bonacci, Brian McMahan, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs, David Pajo	The For Carnation	(5:57)
On the Swing	John Weiss, Tim Ruth, John Herndon, Michael McMahan, Brian McMahan, Douglas McCombs	The For Carnation	(2:06)
I Wear the Gold	Tim Ruth, John Weiss, Michael McMahan, Brian McMahan, Douglas McCombs, John Herndon	The For Carnation	(5:27)
Imyr, Marshmallow	Douglas McCombs, John Weiss, Brian McMahan, Tim Ruth, John Herndon, Michael McMahan	The For Carnation	(2:08)
Winter Lair	Michael McMahan, Brian McMahan, Douglas McCombs, Tim Ruth, John Herndon, John Weiss	The For Carnation	(5:38)
Salo	Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, John Weiss, Brian McMahan, Michael McMahan, Tim Ruth	The For Carnation	(6:45)
Preparing to Receive You	Brian McMahan, Michael McMahan, John Weiss, Douglas McCombs, John Herndon, Tim Ruth	The For Carnation	(8:51)

Credits

Tim Ruth (Performer), Douglas McCombs (Performer), Elizabeth Kelly (Paintings), Michael McMahan (Performer), John Golden (Remastering), Grant Berger (Engineer), David Pajo (Performer), David Babbitt (Reissue Layout), Brad Wood (Engineer), Andrew Bonacci (Performer), Dan Osborn (Layout Design), Brian McMahan (Performer), John Weiss (Performer), Rebecca Gallion (Sculpture), Noel Saltzman (Photography), John Herndon (Performer), Greg Calbi (Mastering)