Raining Down Diamonds

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Jandek chronology
Raining Down Diamonds

Studio album by Jandek
Released	2005
Recorded	Unknown
Genre	Outsider music
Length	44:42
Label	Corwood Industries
Producer(s)	Jandek
Glasgow Sunday (2005)	Raining Down Diamonds (2005)	Khartoum (2005)

Raining Down Diamonds is the third of four albums by musician Jandek released in 2005. Released as Corwood Industries (#0780), it is his 42nd overall, and finds the artist in a spiritual mode, backed by fretless bass.

[edit] Overview

Coming soon after the release of Glasgow Sunday, the recording of Jandek's first-ever concert, and his second and third European shows, this quiet studio album nonetheless grabbed attention. The reason for that is less the music and more the shocking cover, which finds Jandek in Islamic dress, a smile on his face. Judging by the appearance of the man in the concert, this is an older picture, and perhaps represents a facet of his life previously unknown to listeners (though it may be added that Jandek has always had spiritual leanings). The lyrics reflect this picture, and this is the most consistently spiritual album in the Jandek catalog, featuring such lines as, "you’re only as young as your heart/there’s times I know you feel lonely/for the friends who’ve passed you on by/but be free and you’ll see/that it only comes to be/another way back to your heart."

Musically the album is less confrontational than the other bass/vocal albums, which is fitting. Not to say that it's jubilant, but his voice is softer. It also features a new version of "Take My Will," originally from Glad to Get Away ten years earlier. The song seems quite appropriate here, with the mantra, "Jesus take my will/take mine and make it yours" fitting in nicely with the other devotional lyrics. On the odd side, the album also includes a tribute to the "food God," which one assumes is ironic, yet which is sung in the same tone as everything else.