Goodbye, the latest album from the Czars marks not only a farewell to lost loves and tough times, but a new beginning for the Colorado-based quartet. Via their signing with Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde's Bella Union label and the World's Fair Label Group, audiences across North America now have an opportunity to enter the Czars' world of heartbreaking ballads, soulful electronica ,and lush rock soundscapes. Or, to put it another way--hear what all the buzz has been about.
As one would expect from a band best known for their achingly beautiful symphonies and melancholic lyrics, the story of the Czars is one of heartbreak, sadness and plain old bad luck. But, like their music, the end result is one that suggests a bright future rather than a bitter past.
The Czars started in 1994 when vocalist John Grant and bassist Chris Pearson met at Rock Island, a club in Denver's lower district. Grant and Pearson's mutual appreciation for artists as diverse as Kraftwerk, Patsy Cline, Tom Waits, and Nina Simone and their shared desire to make "real music" made for a natural (some say "ordained") musical pairing.
After recruiting a few more members and refining their sound for nearly a year, Grant and the rest of the Czars headed into the studio with local music icon Bob Ferbrache in 1995 to record their debut album Moodswing. Ferbache would again man the boards for their 1997 follow up La Brea Tar Pits Of Routine. Both albums were self-released by the band on their Velveteen Records label. The latter was sent to the Bella Union label in London to the attention of Raymonde, who offered the band a four-album deal immediately after hearing it. With that, the Czars became the first American band to sign with Bella Union and a string of opening slots for high-profile groups like Low, the Dirty Three, and Ween, as well as critical praise from the U.K. press, soon followed.
Riding high from their successes overseas, the Czars returned to the studio in 1999 to record Before…But Longer, an album of swirling guitar rock spiked with flourishes of shoegaze and country. Unfortunately, the Raymonde-produced album lay dormant for over a year while the band searched for a U.S. label. With no takers, Bella Union finally released it in the U.K. in 2000. As a consolation prize of sorts, the band were named "Best Rock Band" by the Denver alt-weekly Westword, but had no domestically-available album to show for it.
In a similar twist of misfortune, the Czars' brilliant 2000 soundtrack EP to the independent film I'd Rather Be…Gone, on the tiny Toronto label Absalom Recordings, was released as limited-edition three-inch CD, making it more of a collector's item than a widely-available addition to their catalogue.
Things took a turn for the better when the band completed their next album The Ugly People Vs The Beautiful People in 2002. For one, it was actually released, which made it's winning of Westword's "Album Of The Year" all the more sweeter. Accolades from the U.K. press soon followed and rave reviews appeared in influential publications such as Mojo, Q, and NME.
2003 saw the Czars embark on sold out European tours with David Gray, 16 Horsepower, and the Flaming Lips. By November, the band was itching to begin work on a new album and locked themselves in their studio for six months to record what would be their most ambitious album to date, Goodbye.
Goodbye's U.K release on Bella Union in 2004 cemented the group's status as a critical favorite (see a pattern here?) and outranked works by the Shins, Morrissey, and Bjork on Mojo's Top 50 list for 2004.
With Bella Union's joining of the World's Fair Label group, the Czars will finally have an avenue by which to enchant North American listeners with the fruits of their undeniable talents.
At its core, Goodbye is centered around the themes of loss, regret and, ultimately, change. But more concretely, it's an album of incredible songs made heavenly through rich production, masterful musicianship, and John Grant's beautiful baritone vocals. Over its 12 tracks, twisted lyrical ballads are merged with classical piano flourishes, lush layers of guitars, and haunting electronics to create worlds of sound inhabited by the ghosts of Nina Simone, Miles Daves, Kraftwerk, and Patsy Cline (to name a few).
Goodbye is destined to become a topic of conversation amongst U.. fans, but while Grant and the Czars are more than happy to get people talking, they'd much rather people listen. And with that, we'd like for you to say hello to Goodbye.
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