93.
Track Listing
1.) Liferaft
2.) Haywire
3.) Bedside Table
4.) The Unpredictable Landlord
5.) Crushing
6.) Unfinished
7.) Powder
8.) Foaming Love
9.) To the Ground
10.) Living Well
11.) Wind Down
The first time I listened to this album is a time I remember fondly. It was after one in the morning, and it was cold as hell. It was raining outside, and I'd just come home from a get-together with friends. I was stoned, a little buzzed, and sleepy, so I put on an album I'd not heard before, that I thought maybe I'd be able to sleep to.
Even though the album itself is a sound I could sleep to under most circumstances, I was completely blown away and stayed up to listen. I sat wrapped up in a blanket, window opened, chain smoking and watching the rain.
It's always been that sort of album for me.
Beautiful and restrained, melancholy and personal, this album is able to resonate with listeners without becoming too formulaic. It feels honest, veers towards depressing, but forges on with quietly drawled vocals and instrumentation.
Even at its guitar-fuzzed, cymbal-infused loudest, it feels subdued and almost mellow. This is not the album you're going to put on when you're getting pumped up for that party you're heading to on a Saturday night. In spite of its often depressing tone, it's not the album you're going to reach for when you're down in the dumps because that bitch just broke your heart. This is the album you're going to listen to when you want to listen to something special and extraordinary, and when you're feeling introspective.
The perfectly placed clean guitar melodies and almost-too-quiet vocals fit beautifully amidst the backdrop of fuzz and percussion frequently employed on the album. Although that is a commonly occurring motif, however, it does not, over the 11 tracks on this debut effort, become at all boring or redundant.
It feels complete, satisfying, and a little blue, but it never overstays its welcome. This is an album you're going to want to really listen to, taking time to absorb everything it has to offer. When played in the background, it's a good album; when played by yourself, with headphones and hunger for aural stimulation, it's a personal and wonderful experience.