| Reviews |
All Music Guide Review:
Review by Tim DiGravina
Shaker might make more sense if it were called Sleeper, because the three songs on this post-Painful EP are more somber than rocking. The title track, released previously as a contribution to the soundtrack for Hal Hartley's Amateur, contains the only rock & roll gesture on the EP. Ira Kaplan sounds quite angry singing "come on down, nothin' to do" repeatedly over sinister, driving, and fuzzy guitars. It's the sound of the Velvet Underground as a post-rock band. "For Shame of Doing Wrong," a cover of the pensive Richard and Linda Thompson song, with delicate vocals by Georgia Hubley amidst a faint background organ and a weeping slide guitar, is so quiet that it struggles to exist. Kaplan's background vocals are barely audible, and the song is a great success in its minimalist intensity. "What She Wants" would sound perfectly at home on Painful. It's almost a flipside to the Thompson cover, coming across like Kaplan's depressed response to Hubley. With the song's tempo struggling somewhere between a waltz tempo and a dirge and a lone trumpet or tuba mournfully sounding off over a strummed guitar, it's quite an emotional display. Shaker is a brilliant EP and an excellent companion to Painful.
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