This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Finally, a band that knows the difference between slow and sleep-inducing.
Chicago quintet For Carnation — who have at times included members of post-rock godheads such as Slint, Tortoise and Eleventh Day Dream — deliver their dreamy, dramatic dirges at a deliberate downbeat and with all the wide open space of plenty of their indie-rock brethren. But thanks to bassist Todd Cook’s tightly wound lines, the propulsive, crisply funky stickwork of drummer Steve Goodfriend, Michael McMahan’s sparkling guitars and singer Brian McMahan’s Leonard Cohen growl and fever-dream lyrics, these sprawling musical sagas — average length: eight minutes — on their third album retain all the tension of a deliciously drawn-out psychological thriller. Which brings up another reason these guys won’t put you to sleep — you won’t want to listen to this with the lights off.
