''Calamity'' is the fourth album by

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

band The Curtains, released in 2006 on

Asthmatic Kitty Asthmatic Kitty Records is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by a community of musicians from Holland, Michigan led by Sufjan Stevens and his stepfather Lowell Brams. Some were Holland natives, and others had come to attend lo ...

. It was recorded directly after

Deerhoof Deerhoof is an American musical group formed in San Francisco in 1994. It consists of founding drummer Greg Saunier, bassist and singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez. Beginning as an improvised noise punk band ...

's " The Runners Four". The album is exclusively produced by

Chris Cohen Christopher or Chris Cohen may refer to: * Christopher A. Cohen, American producer, stage manager and director * Christopher B. Cohen, Chicago politician * Chris Cohen (footballer) * Chris Cohen (musician) {{hndis, Cohen, Christopher ...

. It features guest performances by

Nedelle Torrisi Nedelle Torrisi is an American musician who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Biography Torrisi grew up studying classical violin and performing in musicals. Her mother is an ex-nun and pianist, while her father was an ex-Jesuit priest and jazz drum ...

and Yasi Perera (vocal harmonies), as well as

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

by John Ringhofer. The album's music is mostly composed of compressed

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s; the instrumentation has been described as "nondescript" and "delicate". It is classified as

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

, although songs contain other elements such as

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, and

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

Track listing

# "Go Lucky" – 3:11 # "Green Water" – 2:19 # "Wysteria" – 2:11 # "The Thousandth Face" – 2:56 # "World's Most Dangerous Woman" – 2:41 # "Tornado Traveler's Fear" – 2:44 # "Roscomare" – 3:02 # "Old Scott Rd." – 2:08 # "Calamity" – 2:27 # "Invisible String" – 1:19 # "Brunswick Stew" – 1:43 # "Fell On a Rock and Broke It" – 2:07 # "Spinning Top" – 2:50

Personnel

* Chris Cohen – vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums *

– vocals * John Ringhofer – trombone

Reception

''Calamity'' received mixed reviews from critics, with a metascore of 60 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

rated the album 7.4 out of 10, stating that Cohen was "struggling to balance his twee pop tendencies with experimentation", while

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album a 3 out of 5 stars, stating that "the hits outnumbered the misses".

References

2006 albums The Curtains albums Asthmatic Kitty albums {{2000s-indie-rock-album-stub