Who said the album is dead? Below are a handful of our favorite albums reviewed in the form of a letter. Click on the artist to jump down to their section.
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| Andrew Bird | Josh Garrels | Aaron Strumpel |
Album(s): Break It Yourself & Hands of Glory by Andrew Bird
Dear Andrew Bird,
Let me open this letter by simply saying this: thank you for making music. The depth of beauty and intellect you pour into your art form is both moving and mind-blowing, yet you are able to keep the passion without pretension. You are, in my opinion, one of the most prolific and virtuosic artists writing music in this century.
Speaking of prolific music-writing (and getting, now, to the point), let me also congratulate you on an excellent year in music. With the March release of the full-length Break It Yourself as well as October’s unveiling of a ‘musical companion’ to the former, Hands of Glory, we have seen quite a culmination of creation in 2012. Both albums display the lyrical brilliance and instrumental pedigree we’ve come to expect with your music, but this time, it seems, you couldn’t do it alone. And it is that which I’m most inspired by with this year’s records. Both works glow with a feeling of collaboration, camaraderie, and conviviality that is truthfully harder to find on your previous albums. Though it is evident that you are the chief songwriter, the communal energy in these works lends new and unexpected subtleties to your trademark style—your dry wit and soulful melancholy.
I have always felt that listening to one of your albums at home just doesn’t compare to seeing you play live. Solo or with accompaniment, the emotion, energy, and ache that goes into your music seem less pronounced in the refinement of the recording process. But with the group dynamic on Break It Yourself, I feel I can glimpse a clearer picture of what making music is like for you, how it feels to you, perhaps why you do it at all. On that same note, I had read that
Hands of Glory was intended to be a simple collection of old-timey cover songs, which I’ve seen/heard you and your current posse (Martin Dosh, Jeremy Ylvisaker, and Mike Lewis) perform on your 2012 tour in support of Break It Yourself. However, as is often the case with a close-knit group of highly creative people who truly enjoy creating, the process of capturing these covers resulted in the formation of several new original songs—enough to put out an eight-track companion piece, which includes a handful of the aforementioned covers.
That is so cool to me: four musicians playing and writing for the fun of it in a secluded barn outside Elizabeth, Illinois and making the music that they want to make, that they feel. In a time when most musical artists don’t write their own music, and the artists themselves are elevated to an oddly legendary level, it is refreshing and exciting to see a group of down-to-earth artists who are active in the art, who honestly enjoy making music—so much so that they couldn’t stop making it. Beyond contract, hype, or status: real human beings creating real art in real time for real reasons.
Listening to these albums is a legitimately fun experience, and I can tell that you guys had fun making them. It is for your commitment to authentic art, for companions and companion pieces, and for the pleasure (and infectious, persistent nature) of creation itself that I love—and everyone should listen to—Break It Yourself and Hands of Glory.
Thanks again, Mr. Bird, and keep creating.
Sincerely,
Album: Love & War & The Sea In Between by Josh Garrels
Dear Josh,
I’d like to take a moment to share with you some of my reflections on your recent album – Love & War & The Sea In Between. It is definitely not an album to be engaged from a distance. Rather, it is a story to be entered into. I like that. Like all good stories, I see a common thread woven from stasis to resolution. Thank you for inviting us (your listeners) to take heart, be courageous and see life.
As White Owl opens this story by setting the stage for a little unrest I am reminded of how we eventually all come to experience the tension of sensing that there is something more to this life than what we currently know. We can either crush that feeling or fall into the figurative rabbit hole and see what beauty awaits.
By the way, I LOVE the video for White Owl. What inspired the imagery for this video? I digress, so back to my reflections.
As this story unfolds in your album, each consecutive song leads us deeper into the valleys and mountaintops that are life, all the while reminding us that many waters cannot quench love. Flood waters rise/but it won’t wash away/love never dies/it will hold more fierce than graves. These words rarely feel true in the midst of the storm, but if we can grasp hold of them – however loosely – they can become an anchor for our soul. It reminds me of Madeleine L’Engle’s book, Many Waters. Are you familiar with her work?
I was pleasantly surprised by the occasional instrumental tracks you included; creating moments to savor and ponder the rich lyrics that hem them in. It is impossible to listen and not give thought to who you are and where you are heading. As the story winds down, you appropriately titled the last track Processional. Anyone who has chosen the roads less traveled will tell you that upon reaching the other side you are still you, but perhaps a wiser more enlightened version. It turns out that the end is not really the end; only another beginning.
So, thank you for encouraging each of us to enter into our next beginning. I am already looking forward to your next album (hopefully produced in your new studio).
Yours Truly,
Album: January Journal by Aaron Strumpel
Dear Mr. Strumpel –
We’ve only met in the flesh once, probably 4 years ago, in Michigan at the Calvin Music Festival where you won band spotting notoriety. All my other interaction with you has been digital. Yet the art you create is very incarnational in my mind, mixing the ethereal and the earth together, allowing your listeners to know your heart more.
I love the concept of your newest release, January Journals, on many fronts. First, there’s the discipline of listening and creating every day for a month. If nothing else, other musicians should buy and listen to the album as an example of an artistic pilgrimage, possibly spurring themselves on to deeper levels of making music.
Second, there’s the vulnerability aspect. You kept and shared all the tracks. While there are no bad tracks on the album, there are second string songs and B-sides. But in the overarching creative process these are needed sinews and keys that open up doors and provide connection to other song-writing. Plus, on a soul level these tracks may have given you an emotional release, and even though they might be archived, the liberty of spirit surely affected you one way or another.
And third, from a listener perspective, it’s great to have 31-tracks to break and combine into a host of playlists. In this one project, you’ve given us 3 albums to tinker with and existentially form for personal audio habits.
One thing I was surprise to not find, something which you’ve done before, were instrumental tracks. It seems like this has become more common over the past 7 years of music… musicians legitimizing the abstract synergy of thought and tone without the need of lyrics.
As far as songs themselves, I enjoy the chunky guitar on Hallowed, the gritty lo-fi lament of All Night, and your spoken word Time. Your poetic-prophet-ness is really strong on Bells Like Hammers with accessible lyrical imagery and memorable hooks. And where that song is outward, songs such as Like You and Sanctify internalize a sincerity of heart, the desire for transformation, and the need of grace.
Favorite track though has to be Under the Gun. Its pace with guitar action is both driving and meditative. One day when I have a ton of free time, I will make a music video with this song, taking Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet movie and remixing its images to your song. I just can’t help seeing it in my mind when listening to the track. Faith, tension of commitment, needing to fight for love, “…I will get closer to you…”.
I still have a certain affinity towards Elephants and your Vespers EP, but January Journals is another great step of creative maturity in an unlikely way.
Sincerely,
J. Hudson Brown
CurrentlyProphetic 