- Label:
Fire Museum Records.
- Year:
2008.
- Style: Appalachian Folk.
- Format:
CD.
- Note: Limited to 500 copies.
- Score:
65%
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It's with more security the husband and wife duo ARBOREA deliver their brooding Appalachian blues folk this time. A noticeable maturity in the music, in the lyrics and in the entire production as expected from a sequel album. The instrumentation is wider. The feeling they often failed to deliver in "Wayfaring Summer" comes to life here. It also looks better.
Apart from all that, things are pretty much the same. Shanti's wonderful, ghostly vocals leads us through 11 tracks full of plucked guitars and banjos, and well-tune cellos. Some of them are true successes, like "Black Mountain Road" with that reversed part in the beginning that sounds better than most non-reversed music that's released today. And the galloping "Dark is the Night (In the Wind)". And most of all, the enchanting "Swan". BUT, there's still a long way to go. It's quite often kind of reedy, and it's pretty much a straight forward way from the intro to the outro. I know Buck and Shanti could do better, they certainly got what it takes! There are just simply too many unhatched ideas, again. And the production is better this time as I mentioned, but it still suffers from that you-have-to-turn-the-volume-up-to-hear-what-is-going-on-but-the-only-thing-that-gets-louder-is-the-bass-making-it-pretty-hard -to-listen-to-syndrome a bit. Disable the extra bass function on your stereo to ease it a bit.
But then again, it's still a fine album. It has an original sound. Late at night during these dark months it's almost the perfect soundtrack, and I can't wait to hear the next offering. If you ever wondered like a collaboration between 16 HORSEPOWER and ESPERS would wound, try this.
Tracklist:
- Forewarned
- Red Bird
- Ides of March
- Seadrift
- Black Mountain Road
- Dark Horse
- Leaves Among the Ruins
- Dark Is the Night (In the Wind)
- Swan
- Echo of Hooves
- Plains of Macedonia
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