Apocalypse is an album released on April 5, 2011 by Bill Callahan. It is the third studio album released under his own name, and fourteenth overall when including LPs released as Smog. 1. "Drover" - 5:24 2. "Baby's Breath" - 5:30 3. "America!" - 5:33 4. "Universal Applicant" - 5:53 5. "Riding for the Feeling" - 6:05 6. "Free's" - 3:13 7. "One Fine Morning" - 8:46 Read more on Last.fm.
Bill Callahan (born 1966), also known as Smog and (Smog), is an American singer-songwriter born in Silver Spring, Maryland. Callahan began working in the lo-fi genre of underground rock, with home-made tape-albums recorded on four track tape recorders. Later he began releasing albums with the label Drag City, to which he remains signed today.
Callahan started out as a highly experimental artist, using substandard instruments and recording equipment. Read more on Last.fm
Is Smog back? After considerably re-darkening his approach on 2009’s “Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle,” Bill Callahan takes a move away from that album’s lush, orchestrated production towards the more plaintive and disjointed sounds of his early Smog days. The record’s most obvious thematic reference point is “A River Ain’t Too Much to Love,” as this lacks the introspective nature of most of his albums under either his given name or nom de plume, focusing instead on American mythos and history.
“Baby’s Breath” is the most obvious callback to Callahan’s lo-fi roots: though it’s much cleaner sounding than anything on “Julius Caesar,” the jagged guitars certainly recall the tense aggression of his music from that period. “America!” has a stomping, distorted, Burnside-esque bass skeleton that allows Callahan to make his most stylistically adventurous track in a long time, an almost dance-y blues romp. Meanwhile, tracks like “Riding for the Feeling” and “One Fine Morning” prove that Bill maintains his penchant for elegiac beauty. This record, though it may trail off towards the end, proves that Callahan is once again at the top of his game, providing a brilliant curveball after the lush beauty of its predecessor.