''Lost and Safe'' is the third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American musical duo

the Books ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. It was released on April 5, 2005 by

Tomlab Tomlab is a German record label based in Köln. It has released works by bands such as The Books, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Deerhoof, Thee Oh Sees, Les Georges Leningrad, and acts associated with Blocks Recording Club, such as Fi ...

. As with the duo's prior records, ''Lost and Sound'' features extensive sampling.

Composition

''Lost and Safe'' is stylistically similar to previous Books albums, continuing the duo's rich use of

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

s. The samples used on ''Lost and Safe'' originate from sources as diverse as

Raymond Baxter Raymond Frederic Baxter Order of the British Empire, OBE (25 January 1922 – 15 September 2006) was an English television presenter, commentator and writer. He is best known for being the first presenter of the BBC Television science program ...

("That's the picture. You s—you see it for yourself."),

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

("This great society is going smash / A culture is no better than its woods", from his poem " Woods"), and a reading of

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

's poem "

Jabberwocky "Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865). The bo ...

". "Venice" samples the bonus track of a 1966 opera record, on which an American reporter describes a

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

"happening" in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. The eclecticism of the samples is partially owed to their origins in used "

bargain bin A bargain bin refers to an assorted selection of merchandise, particularly software, tools and CDs, which have been discounted in price. Reasons for the discount can range from the closure of a production company to a steep decline in an item's p ...

" records. Throughout the album, these direct samples are juxtaposed with

interpolated In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one often has a n ...

vocal passages performed by Books member Nick Zammuto. The Books opted to employ more linear song structures on ''Lost and Safe'', with the intent of composing material more well suited to live performance.

Critical reception

''Lost and Safe'' received highly positive reviews from music critics. On the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the album has a rating of 84 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim". David Serra of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote: "From the songwriting to the production to the performance, the whole package that the Books present with ''Lost and Safe'' works wonderfully and makes for a very rewarding listen." ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...

'' named ''Lost and Safe'' the best album of 2005.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of the 2005 and 2011 issues of the album. The Books * Paul de Jong – music, mastering, mixing,

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

* Nick Zammuto – music, mastering, mixing, recording Additional personnel * Frieda Luczak – design

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2005 albums The Books albums Albums recorded in a home studio Tomlab albums