It’s such a cliché to say “I can’t believe it’s been x years since y happened,” but seriously, sometimes that’s all you can say. Witness this reissue of The Handsome Family’s Singing Bones, an expanded edition of their sixth album that debuted 23 years ago. It’s a welcome reminder of the staying power of this quirky release, which contributed some of the duo’s longest lasting and most popular songs as well as a plethora of strong deep cuts.
I’ve reviewed pretty much every release by The Handsome Family since their breakout third album Through the Trees (and seen them numerous times on West Coast tours), including my review in 2003 for the original release of Singing Bones. I would have different things to say about it if I reviewed it today, but that’s true of many things I’ve reviewed in the past quarter century and more. I’ve learned that the things you like about a record at first blush quite often change as you listen to it over a couple of decades. That favorite track might no longer be, and a song you glossed over has in the meantime revealed deeper layers of meaning for you.
The biggest thing that’s happened to Singing Bones in these years is that an edit of one of its tracks, “Far From Any Road,” was used as the opening theme music for the first season of the hit HBO show True Detective. That greatly boosted their profile both in North America and in Europe, increased their fan base and the size of their audience at live shows. It’s by far their biggest hit, with just shy of 200 million streams on Spotify. And I have to admit that I totally missed the appeal of this song the first time around.
The songs that most stood out to me on first review included the eerie Civil War ballad “Fallen Peaches,” whose imagery I still find subtly moving but is no longer one I regularly play. “The Song Of A Hundred Toads” was another immediate favorite because I’m a sucker for novelty type songs; it’s still a fun listen but doesn’t have the emotional heft I first imagined for it.
The two multi-tracked a capella songs “If The World Should End In Fire” and “If The World Should End In Ice” retain their appeal, and the former has only gained in power as this outcome becomes more likely every year. (My eyes are burning as I write this, from wildfire smoke invading our tranquil valley.) I immediately liked “The Bottomless Hole” and it remains a favorite — and has become a staple of the live show. Likewise “24-Hour Store,” the meandering ballad whose chorus provides the album’s title. I kinda liked it at first, but it has earwormed its way deeply into my life, both via its subtle musical hooks and Rennie Sparks’s funny-sad-creepy lyrics.
What did I miss besides “Far From Any Road”? Well, the opener “The Forgotten Lake” has its own power from Rennie’s surreal, somewhat cyclical lyrics and Brett’s dreamy delivery. And just the overall thematic coherence of this album, with so many songs about dreamscapes and nightmare scenarios, starting right from “The Forgotten Lake.”
Girls in white nightgowns / Wander barefoot in their sleep / And the vapors of dreams / Wind in circles round their feet.
The titular “Gail With The Golden Hair” goes mad with the light of the fiery sunset in her hair and runs screaming through the city. And Lisa in “A Shadow Underneath” also seems to lose her mind as she works in a quiet empty urban office building: And everything was quiet / Everything was clean / But she felt something waiting / A shadow underneath…
A bowed bass adds a sinister element to the song of the “hideous forest” that surrounds the towers of “Whitehaven.” What seems like an odd dream becomes a terrible nightmare as the narrator and an unnamed female figure have some sort of encounter before they’re dragged back to the church yard “Laughing like jackals / As the stone towers tumbled / And bowed to the wild, dark wood.” Which is followed by the lucid dream song “Sleepy” in which the narrator keeps waking from nightmares, the surreal dreaminess emphasized by some nice pedal steel from longtime collaborator Dave Gutierrez.
This reissue on vinyl and CD comes with a bonus disc called invisible bones that contains demos of five of the songs — the first four tracks “The Forgotten Lake,” “Gail With The Golden Hair,” “24-Hour Store,” and “The Bottomless Hole” plus “Whitehaven,” which are cool to hear in their early incarnations. Also featured are seven live tracks recorded in various venues from 2003 to 2018. These are the real gems, giving a good picture of the weirdness, occasional chaos, and emotional heft of a Handsome Family show. There are two takes on “Far From Any Road,” one from 2004 in San Diego before it became a hit, and another from Copenhagen in 2018, complete with Brett’s snarky intro. Other live tracks: “24-Hour Store,” “The Bottomless Hole,” “The Song Of A Hundred Toads,” plus a dreamy “The Forgotten Lake” from Albuquerque public radio station KUNM, and a wild take on the traditional “Dry Bones,” the album’s one non-original song, based on a 1928 version by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, recorded on New Year’s Eve in 2013.
The Handsome Family has such a deep catalog now that an opportunity to revisit one of their earlier albums is very welcome. Singing Bones emerges from this reissue as a strong and thematically coherent statement from these musicians at a time of transition which seems to have offered up a big helping of inspiration and creativity.
They’re currently working on 2027 tour plans. Keep an eye on their website or subscribe to their email updates, and go see them when they come around! They’re funny, moving, engaging and endearing.
(Carrot Top, 2003 / Milk & Scissors, 2026)
