This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
The family that plays together doesn’t always stay together.
Drummer Janet Weiss and guitarist Sam Coombes used to be married; now they’re just bandmates when she isn’t pounding the skins for Sleater-Kinney and he isn’t strumming behind Elliott Smith. But unlike a lot of exes, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of tension in their relationship — at least none that comes through in the grooves of their fifth release The Sword of God. With a rambling, shambling style that screams Portland indie duo, Janet’s crash-bash drums and Sam’s cheesy keyboards mix with their garage-band guitars and melancholy melodies into a strangely happy brand of lo-fi weirdness — kind of like what Ben Folds might sound like if he traded in his grand piano for an old Yamaha organ and experimented with some psychtropic drugs. At any rate, it’s proof that at least Janet and Sam can still make beautiful music together.
