Bless You is one of the Court and Spark's very earliest records (is Ventura Whites earlier? it sounds earlier) and I was surprised to hear of its existence. After all, I had Witch Season and Dead Diamond River and Hearts, so I thought I was doing pretty good. It wasn't until I was reading the article about them on Last.fm that I discovered their two early albums, and I was surprised by an Amazon review that declared this their best album ever, since surely it couldn't be better than Witch Season. But I was plenty excited to get it anyway, and when I put it in, boy, was I pleased.

While Witch Season is a little more up-tempo than Bless You, it doesn't really outshine the record in terms of energy, because a lot of the instrumentation in Bless You is somewhere between intense and frantic, especially some of the lead guitar work. The drums are also way up in the mix, which gives the slower beat a little more emotion.

But of course, with the Court and Spark, it's the songs that carry the day, not the arrangement. I submit that if you don't like "Rooster Mountain," we probably cannot be friends. Ditto "National Lights."

Actually, I probably don't proselytize enough for the Court and Spark, so I should point out here that some of my all time top 100 songs are scattered across the handful of C&S disks that I have. Check out "Suffolk Down Upon The Night," "Out on the Water," "Sundowner, You," "Berliners," "Titov Sang the Blues," and more. Like.. now. Check them out right now.