Send "Dead Man's Bones " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Some records are an absolute void of interesting review angles, forcing us critics to do, like, actual work. Dead Man's Bones is not one of those records. Fact: Indie dreamboat and RealDoll lover portrayer Ryan Gosling is one-half of Los Angeles band Dead Man's Bones. Wow! Fact: Dead Man's Bones' self-titled debut is a concept album vaguely about supernatural themes, released less than a month before Halloween! Gee! Fact: The vast majority of Dead Man's Bones utilizes a real-life, full-on children's choir, recruited from hipster kid academy the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. TILT TILT TILT! Step aside Girls, we've got a new backstory winner for 2009.It's a credit to the record then that none of these angles turn out to be easy nooses by which to hang the project. The one triggering most alarm bells, of course, is Gosling's involvement, since everyone knows that movie-star bands tend to range from amateurishly terrible to inoffensively generic. Well, I'll dispel that preconception straight away-- Dead Man's Bones is a really, really weird record, a project where the musical reference points at least indicate that Gosling and his co-conspirator Zach Shields have record collections that go deeper than an iPod nano. The other two angles-- spooky themes and a kid's choir-- are both symptoms of the record's most endearing quality, a surplus of ideas and a willingness to combine them in ways that are vibrant, sloppy, and fun. Though the record begins with a pretentious spoken-word introductory track (kind of a necessary concept-album evil) followed by its worst song (the Ambien-overdosed and over-serious "Dead Hearts"), the remainder of the project is slapdash, giddy, and surprisingly dense. Like an old Elephant 6 record, Dead Man's Bones has a lo-fi warts-and-all feel that's less lazy aesthetic than charmingly handmade, even more charismatic for it's unevenness....full text |
| Laweekly |
| Deep inside Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, past the skyward expanding parlor room, past the ghosts materializing in mirrors, there is a room where the dead dance. In that ballroom, an all-out specter soiree percolates with (holographic) apparitions waltzing around dinner tables, hanging from chandeliers, and partying in ways only the undead can. ​ On Friday night, Dead Man's Bones brought the Haunted Mansion to Bob Baker's Marionette Theater and unleashed a spectacle one part Screamin' Jay Hawkins, two parts Tim Burton, for a completely magical night of playful phantasmagoria. The performance joined together Dead Man's Bones--the moody, zombie-obsessed project concocted by actors Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields--and the puppet menagerie of the 85 year-old Baker's historic children's theater. The band wrote the tale of a beautiful belle's love affair with a mysterious man from beyond the grave, and the theaters dexterous puppeteers deftly pulled the strings that brought these characters to life. While the unlikely lovers danced and romped through the underworld, an audience of young kids sat crossed-legged on the floor, as Dead Man's Bones provided the soundtrack, Shields on drums, Gosling on keys and guitar, both trading off on vocals....full text |
| Idolator |
| Our continuing look at the lines of the week’s biggest new-music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to Dead Man’s Bones, the debut album from the Ryan-Gosling-plus-childrens’-choir outfit of the same name: • “Dead Man’s Bones also do a fine job of balancing the campy and spiritual aspects of a concept album about love, death, and undeath. ‘In the Room Where You Sleep” is gleefully terrifying; ‘Young & Tragic,’ the only song the Silverlake Conservatory kids sing on their own, uses their delicate, flawed voices to express something deeper. Throughout it all, there is a ‘hey, kids, let’s put on a show!’ exuberance that makes the album all the more winning. Dead Man’s Bones isn’t perfect, but it’s often fascinating and nearly always charming — and Shields and Gosling wouldn’t have it any other way. ” [Heather Phares, AllMusic] • “Overall, I’m as surprised as you are with Dead Man’s Bones. So many ways for it to go wrong, but instead it’s a unique, catchy and lovably weird record, with highlights (the electric piano singalong ‘Pa Pa Power,’ the Beck-ish ‘Werewolf Heart’) that could hold their own with the best indie singles of the year. Perhaps all those easy angles are a smokescreen, a diversion to lower expectations on a record strong enough to be listened to both without preconceptions and long after its Halloween expiration date.” [Rob Mitchum, Pitchfork]...full text |
Dead Man's Bones lyrics
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