Album review: Bill Callahan's Have Fun With God
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
[Grade: B-] Have Fun With God plays like a Zen koan approximation of the actual experience of listening to a Bill Callahan record.
Bill Callahan | B-
The way Bill Callahan intones his lyrics with that steady, laconic, somewhat eternal-seeming baritone, they have a tendency to drift lazily by, sometimes more felt than fully, consciously registered. Have Fun With God (Drag City), therefore — a no-foolin’ dub (though not reggae) rework of last year’s Dream River wherein about half the lines are either excised or drift off into limitless eddies of reverb — plays like a Zen koan approximation of the actual experience of listening to a Bill Callahan record. —K. Ross Hoffman
