It’s been a big couple of days for music news, what with the Sigur Ros mp3 and album announcement, the great shows coming up in Austin this weekend (Shearwater and Centro-matic/South San Gabriel) which I’ll talk about a little later this week, and then this: new music from the Silver Jews’ upcoming LP Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.

The first thing you’ll note are the lyrical similarities to David Berman’s entire back catalog. The lines “Squirrels imported from Connecticut, just in time for fall / How much fun is a lot more fun? Not much fun at all” lead the song, but more highlights come immediately after: “What’s with all these handsome grandsomes in these rock band magazines? / What have they done with the fat ones, the bald and the goateed?”. I previously mentioned how Rivers Cuomo deals with qualms about rock n’ roll stardom in his own nerd-rock overdrive sort of way; David Berman generally deals with the same themes in a poetic sort of way.

So far as the music is concerned, “Strange Victory”, and the whole album for that matter, is more akin to the straight-forwardness of their last album, Tanglewood Numbers, especially songs like “Animal Shapes”. Berman’s voice continues in its long trajectory towards Johnny Cash, both in baritone lows, and the general “Fuck You” timbre that drives it. The song is short, and leaves you wanting more, like the shot of Bulleit you should have poured before you hit play.

The album leaked a while ago, but you’re still going to want to pick this one up. Nothing beats the feeling of walking home with the new Silver Jews clutched under your arm.

Get the track after the jump.

The Silver Jews - “Strange Victory, Strange Defeat”

Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is out July 17 on Drag City.

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