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Songs from a Random House - Rating:
- Release Date: May 30, 2000
- Total Time: 51:00
- Type: Lyrics are included with the album
- Genre: Rock
Review
Random Numbers was released in 2000 by the British record label Sargasso, usually associated with experimental music (electroacoustic and contemporary classical mostly). The songs of Songs from a Random House are hardly "normal" or mainstream, but don't qualify either as avant-garde. The immediately noticeable musical trait is the use of two ukuleles and a chord organ. This instrumentation (completed with percussion, guitar, viola and vocals) evokes the universe of Frank Pahl. But while the Only a Mother member uses ukulele, harmonium, euphonium, and other neglected instruments (together with low-tech automatons) to add an element of indeterminacy to his music, Steven Swartz's band sticks to the rules of harmony and song structures. Lyrics are kept to a minimum, playing on sonorities or common sense with just a pinch of surrealism, a recipe that produces pearls like this one found in "Hat Covered with Fishing Lures": "That's right, one night I dreamed I was a master of bass / Have you ever caught a bass? / Don't laugh, don't laugh." This humoristic approach, again coupled with the lightness of the all-acoustic instrumentation, recalls Barenaked Ladies' first album Gordon. Swartz's voice is not especially beautifully, but it isn't especially displeasing either. These light folkish songs hide a deeper meaning... or sometimes a stunning superficiality. Highlights include "Every Day Has a Number," "The Miller's Girl" and "Sheltered Life." Serious silliness backed with simple virtuosity: that's what Random Numbers has to offer. Recommended. ~ François Couture, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Eggs, Pt. 1 | (1:54) | ||
| Every Day Has a Number | (4:51) | ||
| Hat Covered With Fishing Lures | (2:56) | ||
| The Miller's Girl | (4:21) | ||
| Surface Isn't Safety | (2:58) | ||
| Themthere Hills | (2:50) | ||
| Sheltered Life | (3:05) | ||
| Loom | (2:47) | ||
| Water | (4:27) | ||
| Born in a Barn | (2:56) | ||
| Wonderful Thing to Forget | (3:09) | ||
| White Trees | (5:05) | ||
| When It Happens | (7:57) | ||
| Eggs, Pt. 2 | (1:22) |
