The End of Love

The quartet and some occasional friends use almost straight country-folk-rock instrumentation to set up songs that blur the occasionally shared borders of sincerity and irony with self-deprecating humor and biting wit. Eef Barzelay’s literately constructed lyrics are laced with surrealistic non-sequiturs—goofy, smart and occasionally poignant. Tiny European cars bounce off his legs, Jews who have found Jesus miss being lost, there are made for TV movies about I Love Lucy and the sound of German hip-hop in the air. All of these combine to make him want to break something beautiful. His twisted focal point, a sad and complicated humor, lets us know that we will surely become what we’re running from, that no one survives the end of love.