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Trollheart · 01-07-2016, 01:25 PM

Title: This Empty Northern Hemisphere
Artiste: Gregory Alan Isakov
Genre: Folk
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: Ilistentoeverything

Expectations: Not the first idea. This is the first album rec from Ilistentoeverything, so while two out of three of his track recs went Blue, one was a real meh, so we'll see.

1. Dandelion wine: Nice acoustic guitar to start, slow and laconic but with a certain power in it too. Love the vocal. Cello coming in now, and a lovely female vocal joining him. Good opener, liked that a lot.
2. Light year: Stronger vocal from the beginning on this, and it's another nice little track.
3. That moon song: Sort of a celtic feel to this, quite a bit of cello, sways along nicely. Kind of hoping to hear something a shade more uptempo as the album goes on though.
4. Evelyn: Like this. This is a nice change; good to see he can inject some energy into it once in a while.
5. Virginia May: This is more upempo too. Love the harmonica. Is that mandolin? Oh and piano too.
6. Big black car: This has a real Country feel to it. The organ on this is special.
7. Masters & a hound: Slower, but a very strong and passionate vocal. Strummed guitar is lovely.
8. This empty northern hemisphere: A lovely ballad with some fine cello. Oh I'm wrong; it picks up a little later. Really nice. Probably has the most passion put into it so far.
9. Idaho: Steel guitar eh? Like the rhyhtm of this song, has a very kind of lonely atmosphere to it. Female vocal on the chorus works well.
10. Words: Reminds me of Dan Fogelberg's “There's a place in the world for a gambler”. Like this one a lot.
11. Fire escape: Now that's some fine solo banjo! Very raw vocal, nice and different and shows he can sing without any accompaniment (or very little). Door closing at the end is very authentic and gives this the feel of something he just threw down on the spur. Even if he didn't.
12. If I go, I'm goin': Really slow and maudlin, but good. Duet really changes it and the entrance of the mandolin is inspired. The steel guitar moaning in the background is a nice touch, doesn't really come to the fore which is nice.
13. One of us cannot be wrong: I like how the double vocal runs pretty much all through this. Using the relationship as “something the doctor advised against” is very clever and original. Lovely bittersweet ballad to close.

End result: A very good singer/songwriter album, if a little morose a lot of the time. There were upbeat moments but not enough, and it makes it a little hard to enjoy it as perhaps I would have had there been more, shall we say, lighter fare to be had in amongst the heart-wrenching ballads and angsty stories.

So, Love or Hate? Still, it's worth a Love of anyone's money.

01-07-2016, 01:25 PM	#2543 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,971	Title: This Empty Northern Hemisphere Artiste: Gregory Alan Isakov Genre: Folk Familiarity: Zero Recommended by: Ilistentoeverything Expectations: Not the first idea. This is the first album rec from Ilistentoeverything, so while two out of three of his track recs went Blue, one was a real meh, so we'll see. 1. Dandelion wine: Nice acoustic guitar to start, slow and laconic but with a certain power in it too. Love the vocal. Cello coming in now, and a lovely female vocal joining him. Good opener, liked that a lot. 2. Light year: Stronger vocal from the beginning on this, and it's another nice little track. 3. That moon song: Sort of a celtic feel to this, quite a bit of cello, sways along nicely. Kind of hoping to hear something a shade more uptempo as the album goes on though. 4. Evelyn: Like this. This is a nice change; good to see he can inject some energy into it once in a while. 5. Virginia May: This is more upempo too. Love the harmonica. Is that mandolin? Oh and piano too. 6. Big black car: This has a real Country feel to it. The organ on this is special. 7. Masters & a hound: Slower, but a very strong and passionate vocal. Strummed guitar is lovely. 8. This empty northern hemisphere: A lovely ballad with some fine cello. Oh I'm wrong; it picks up a little later. Really nice. Probably has the most passion put into it so far. 9. Idaho: Steel guitar eh? Like the rhyhtm of this song, has a very kind of lonely atmosphere to it. Female vocal on the chorus works well. 10. Words: Reminds me of Dan Fogelberg's “There's a place in the world for a gambler”. Like this one a lot. 11. Fire escape: Now that's some fine solo banjo! Very raw vocal, nice and different and shows he can sing without any accompaniment (or very little). Door closing at the end is very authentic and gives this the feel of something he just threw down on the spur. Even if he didn't. 12. If I go, I'm goin': Really slow and maudlin, but good. Duet really changes it and the entrance of the mandolin is inspired. The steel guitar moaning in the background is a nice touch, doesn't really come to the fore which is nice. 13. One of us cannot be wrong: I like how the double vocal runs pretty much all through this. Using the relationship as “something the doctor advised against” is very clever and original. Lovely bittersweet ballad to close. End result: A very good singer/songwriter album, if a little morose a lot of the time. There were upbeat moments but not enough, and it makes it a little hard to enjoy it as perhaps I would have had there been more, shall we say, lighter fare to be had in amongst the heart-wrenching ballads and angsty stories. So, Love or Hate? Still, it's worth a Love of anyone's money. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018