Pitchfork

Everybody likes one Dirty Three album but nobody likes all of them, and your favorite is probably the record you heard first; this fine and original band engenders an odd sort of fanship fatigue. For a while it seemed as though the records sounded too much alike, but Dirty Three found ways to change up the sound through multi-tracking and shift of focus, so that's not quite it.

The weariness has I think more to do with the inherent drama and love of dynamics in the trio's approach to their respective instruments. You think violin, guitar, and drums, and you figure there's something in there that might work as background music, but Dirty Three albums ask a lot. With their inevitable crescendos, every song eventually butts its way into whatever you're doing. You're either paying close attention or you're listening to something else.

On Cinder, Dirty Three seem ready to pare back and let the songs inhabit comparatively modest worlds. Most of these 19 tracks are relatively short mood sketches that will likely be pushed in grander direction in a live setting. There's a bit more instrumental variety, too, with Warren Ellis adding mandolin and piano to some tracks, and Mick Turner contributing bass and organ. "Doris" surprises by beginning with huge drums (turns out Jim White knows how to play a straight backbeat) and angular, almost funky guitar, before reaching a moment of jubilation with a jagged blast of bagpipes from guest Mark Saul. "The Zither Player" is an extrapolation of a theme by Hungarian fiddle player Félix Lajkó, and its jittery upbeat rhythm and Gypsy melody is unusually danceable for the D3. On the other end of the spectrum are quiet set pieces like "Ever Since" and "Amy", on which restrained playing by Ellis allows the simple beauty of trio's group interplay to gel.

Another first: Cinder has vocals. "Great Waves" has Dirty Three backing Chan Marshall to lovely effect; as with her 1998 record Moon Pix, Marshall's hushed ethereal leanings sound particularly convincing stitched up in the rhythms of Turner and White. And she remembered to bring her newly sharpened sense of melody. Sally Timms' wordless cooing on the shapeless "Feral", on the other hand, is far less satisfying, bordering on pointless. Still, on their seventh album, any expansion in approach is welcome, and even the excesses of traditional D3 builders like "She Passed Through" are easy to swallow. If much of it is merely pretty, this is easily the most diverse and wide-ranging Dirty Three record yet, absolutely the right thing for them to be doing at this time. It doesn't ask for or promise nearly as much, which is just the breather needed.