Alright, I'll start things off with a selection from my new collection: "Band's Somehow Connected with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum." The band is Faun Fables and the album is "Family Album."
Faun Fables is headed by Dawn McCarthy, a performance artist/vocalist. The album is intended to be performed in order with an accompanying stage show that I can only imagine is pretty intense and odd. "Family Album" is her first album collaborating with Nils Frykdahl of SGM fame. That said, this is a folk album. Well, nominally a folk album, it's pretty eclectic, but for people who have a deep seated aversion to folky anything, this might not be the best choice.
The album starts out slower, and you won't really notice the SGM connection right away unless you're looking for it. Track 1, "Eyes of a Bird" is an expressive song that really pulls you into the album. "A Mother and a Piano" is about the baseline for the album in my opinion, but by the 4th track, "Lucy Belle", when Nils really joins in you can tell that they aren't pulling punches, and it is good. The rest of the album follows this kind of pattern of revving up and then calming down, only to explode again. It should be noted though that the bombastics may not be as objectively bombastic as one might expect from Nils, but in the context of the album they carry a lot of weight.
The album plays around with, and integrates well, all sorts of surprising instruments and styles: an almost cliche sounding African-American church sermon-like electric organ bit on "Higher", to yodeling on "Mouse Song." They don't really run short of weirdness, but it all holds together amazingly well, and makes for a great album when taken as a whole. My only complaint is that the last song is pretty weak, but the album still holds up very well.
Highlights:
3.) "Eyes of a Bird" - an all around good song.
2.) "Eternal" - an energetic, driving song that I won't deny doing some foot tapping and fake instrument playing to, plus I really enjoy the weird guitar effect that goes on in the background the whole time.
1.) "Carousel With Madonnas" - my favorite song on the album. Feel free to tell me if you don't hear it but I get definite waves of Jefferson Airplane and some Heart in here. Also, they definitely break out some serious Ian Anderson flute action on this track.
Enjoy!
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4 comments:
nice, definitely downloading this tonight
Should we use this section for responses to the albums maybe? Once you listen maybe throw up some comments? I know I'd be interested to see what people think of each one. Matt alone should insure that most of these have some pretty negative reviews. Not to mention colorful.
Well, let me inaugurate this tradition by saying that "Eternal" is a weirdly danceable delight. Haven't fully absorbed the rest of it, though.
I ended up really enjoying this album, especially the interplay between Dawn and Nils on many tracks. She's got a great voice. Favorite track was either Joshua or Higher, but it's all pretty good.
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