Before Josephine Foster was an idiosyncratic solo singer, she was a member of short-lived folk duo The Childrenโs Hour. Here, Fosterโs taut, strange voice and occasional harp, piano, ukulele and harmonium player was paired with Andy Barโs loose and scratchy guitar. The duo recorded an EP and one excellent, underlooked album, SOS JFK, which came out in 2003 on Rough Trade and featured Tim Daisy on drums. But The Childrenโs Hour recorded a second album not long after, this time as a fully-fledged trio with Dave Pajo. That record, Going Home, is finally getting released on Drag City after being rediscovered in the vaults.
Before Josephine Foster was an idiosyncratic solo singer, she was a member of short-lived folk duo The Childrenโs Hour. Here, Fosterโs taut, strange voice and occasional harp, piano, ukulele and harmonium player was paired with Andy Barโs loose and scratchy guitar. The duo recorded an EP and one excellent, underlooked album, SOS JFK, which came out in 2003 on Rough Trade and featured Tim Daisy on drums. But The Childrenโs Hour recorded a second album not long after, this time as a fully-fledged trio with Dave Pajo. That record, Going Home, is finally getting released on Drag City after being rediscovered in the vaults.
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The creation story of Going Home is part of the fun. Even though The Childrenโs Hour were a strictly minority pursuit, way too weird and abstract for the mainstream, the duo were asked to open for Zwan, Billy Corganโs post-Pumpkins supergroup that would eventually dissolve in bitter recrimination. That tour saw The Childrenโs Hour (the name comes from Longfellow rather than the BBC) take their unusual music โ oddly sacred, sometimes twee, more than a little freaky โ to the arenas of North America. But for the music to work in a bigger venue, it needed additional pep, so Zwanโs David Pajo agreed to step in on drums. Pajo, once of Slint of course, admired The Children Hourโs awkward, almost ungainly, spirit and after the tour finished, he took them into a studio in Shelbyville, Kentucky, owned by Will Oldhamโs brother Paul. Itโs where Pajo had recorded I See A Darkness.
Thatโs where the three-piece version of The Childrenโs Hour laid down the eight tracks on Going Home, which were believed lost until Paul Oldham found them last year during a spring clean. Half of these songs โ โAnnaโ, โWyomingโ, โAdoption Dayโ and โGoing Homeโ โ were new versions of tracks that first featured on JFK SOS and appear here little changed, although perhaps Pajoโs drumming is generally more aggressive than Tim Daisyโs on the original album.
But the other four songs are entirely new. โLeader Soldierโ, a version of which featured on Fosterโs 2013 out-take album Strangers On The Trail, has Foster at her most Nico-like, while Bar and Pajo provide taut and unsettling accompaniment. On the adorable โDance With Meโ, Pajoโs percussion leads a jangly love song, that features a gorgeous duet between Bar and Foster reminiscent of The Moldy Peaches. โBright Lightsโ sees Foster ponder mortality and impending death against another strong Pajo-Bar backdrop, with discordant jabs of post-rock guitar and clattering rhythm. Finally comes โRainbowโ, a ballad with a spidery lead guitar from Bar and ominous vocal by Foster, with Pajo supplying a more minimalist backbeat. Cute and creepy in equal measure.