This album is hardly off my playlist at the moment. I love the feel of of it.... close harmonies reminiscent of Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, great lyrics and lovely production quality evoking a kind of Phil Spector feel. Go here for a review.
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Listened to a few bits on Amazon ... see the S&G likeness. Interesting artwork on the cover.
ReplyDeleteHi Tim,
ReplyDeleteI liked this one a lot at first but as the year wore on, found it to be a bit uneven.
That said the I really do like that chorus... "in the quivering forest" from the track Blue Ridge Mountains. Lots of shivers up the spine on that one for me.
Liz - Yes interesting art by Bruegel, who must be posthumously happy that his efforts won the Best Art Vinyl Award 2008. This from Wikipedia (if you can trust the content!)
ReplyDeleteThe cover art is a detail of the 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Vocalist/guitarist Robin Pecknold notes that:
When you first see that painting it’s very bucolic, but when you look closer there’s all this really strange stuff going on, like dudes defecating coins into the river and people on fire, people carving a live sheep, this weird dude who looks like a tree root sitting around with a dog. There’s all this really weird stuff going on. I liked that the first impression is that it’s just pretty, but then you realize that the scene is this weird chaos. I like that you can’t really take it for what it is, that your first impression of it is wrong.
The cover claimed the Best Art Vinyl Award 2008, an annual award, organised by Artvinyl.com, who manufacture frames to display old records in.
Sid - I know what you mean by uneven. The standout track for me is White Winter Hymnal, and I also like Blue Ridge Mountains.