Ratings are inevitably arbitrary so lets get to what matters - you should buy this album if you felt like Mademoiselle of the Morning didnt fit in on the second Gris Gris record, like Greg Ashley's solo work, Leonard Cohen before 1980, Exotica records, psych folk, and an albums full of genre dabbling. I'm not a big fan of the soundscape that opens the album (I'd much rather have those during the A to B side split) but once I fast forward through it the opener "Song From Limestone County" is a killer poetic crooner. Signature moves from the Greg Ashley Home Recording School are here: the cymbal washes, reverbed vocals, forgotten mistakes left in the tape, unexpected instrumentation or lack there of are all present and put to remarkably good use. Standout tracks are the opener mentioned above, the synth-drone driven "Amnesia", and the lush, melodic "Sailing With Bobby". Definitely an album that you will appreciate more with repeated listening and as a bonus activity you can count how many times the word "skin" is used.
Availabe through Birdman Records, Greg Ashley's myspace via snocap, or amazon.
1 comment:
This is a really great album. One of my favs of 2007, for sure. I'm surprised its not super critically acclaimed (Pitchfork gave it 6.something when they reviewed it), its pretty much the perfect singer/songwriter album.
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