Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cipher

Artist: Slim Cessna's Auto Club

Album: Cipher

Label: Alternative Tentacles

Denver’s Slim Cessna’s Auto Club has been around for a while now, but their 2008 album, Cipher, is my first introduction to the group. I first ran across Cipher after finding it on another blogger’s best of 2008 list, and after a few listens I can’t help but think it might have made my top 20 if I had known about it sooner.

SCAC best falls into that barely existent genre of “gothic country.” Songs range from moody acoustic outings to rock-inspired tracks, to lazy banjo ditties. Still other times SCAC sounds like a full on gospel experience.  SCAC plays to the genre’s strengths by taking the listener on an ideological faith based journey. While most songs have some degree of upbeatness to their melodies, the subject matter is anything but cheery. The songs have an apocalyptic Christian outlook reminiscent of the medieval Church. When SCAC sings about God, they reference an angry Father, and preach harsh earthly punishment for those straying from the flock. Further adding to the band’s allure is the fact that SCAC exists in a self-aware world rich with multi-dimensional reoccurring characters.

In Cipher, the band’s frontman, “Slim,” seems to be struggling keeping his band of followers – played by his co-vocalist Munley and various other backups – from losing their devotion to the Church. Four minimalist chants (done in a near aucapella style) about bracing one’s faith reoccur throughout the album. As a testament to the band’s attention to detail, the tempo and urgency of the different chants echo Slim’s success at keeping his friends in line. Not every song features strong Christian overtones, but many songs have multiple layers of meanings – a reality suited to the album’s name. For example, after the opening chant the band opens the album with the bouncy piano driven song “This Land is Our Land Redux.” On their own, the lyrics “let’s make this our land” could mean anything, but upon considering the album’s context, revisiting the song reveals Slim’s forceful agenda of spreading God’s Word.

Other songs, like “Children of the Lord” are more explicit at outlining Slim’s philosophies. Slim sings “I found a list here/in my pocket today/it lists bad doing/deeds and crimes with applicable names… it’s a census in a way/it lists his name and her name and his name and her name and the way we all must pay,” and later escalates his urgency as he sings “we’re long on damnation and short on salvation.” Lyrics like these establish Slim as a forceful agent of the Church, but songs like “Scac 101” develop Slim as more than an eccentric preacher. Slim’s conversation with Munley (framed from Munley’s point of view) has an underlying benevolence, reminiscent of the well-intentioned missionaries sent to the “New World” during the 1700s.

Throughout the album Slim tries reflecting and coping with his failure to impose the Church on all he comes in contact with. In an interesting reflective piece, “Everyone is Guilty #2,” Slim looks back at his views in “Children of the Lord” with the realization that forceful conversion may have flaws, and may in fact not be an effective means of transfering his love for Jesus to newcomers.

I could go on forever deconstructing Cipher, but if I wanted to do that I should be writing an essay. What I’m trying to convey in my review is that Cipher offers one of the most thematically bound, character driven, and self aware album’s I’ve ever heard. There are various levels of meaning within each song, and innumerable connections throughout the album. Even with the album in heavy rotation for weeks I’m still just scratching the surface.