Title: Everything is good here/Please come home
Artiste: The Angels of Light
Genre: Folk
Familiarity: Zero
1. Palisades: So this is a spinoff band from Swans, eh? Well this opening track is lovely, all tinkling bells and soft piano, something like mandolin --- oh, it's a banjo – and a nice vocal, kind of dark folk in its way. Reminds me of Nick Cave or Lou Reed. Nice sudden group vocal near the end and it gets more intense.
2. All souls' rising: This is stronger, driven on guitar with a faster rhythm and a kind of chant running through it. Not as mad about this one. Bit too forceful. Harmonica is nice.
3. Kosinsky: This has a very definite U2 “Bad” feel to it, touches of Lloyd Cole too. Nice. More relaxed. I like that there doesn't seem to be any chorus, and the fiddle gives it a very celtic twist.
4. Nations: Much darker, with a very Cavelike feel. Reminds me of “Song of joy” from
Murder Ballads
5. The family god: Much more low-key, vocal almost muttered at times, picks up nicely then and gets a little more intense.
6. Because she was: Can't say anything about a forty-second track.
7. Roses of Los Angeles: Very bouncy and uptempo, very cheerful, lots of whistles, beating drums, pipes, kind of as if there was a parade going on. The vocal is almost a warcry or shouted proclamation.
8. What you were: And in contrast, a slow, laconic, piano ballad. Again it kicks up later but maintains its basic fragility.
9. Sunset park: Very repetitive (and I mean very) but very engaging somehow. Like the guitar tone. The song is seriously way way WAY too long for what's in in though, which is basically one verse repeated over and over. I really want to downgrade this to Orange, due to the laziness of the writing, but hell, I really like it.
10. Wedding: I like the instrumental intro much more than I like the staggering, sort of wandering melody when the vocal gets going. Almost like two different songs. I'd do Red on this, but due to the intro I'll allow a White, though it doesn't really deserve it.
11. What will come: Again, a nice ambient kind of intro that just feels like it's waiting to burst into something, and begins to coalesce a bit with some organ and bass and then a strummed acoustic guitar with piano coming in. It does build, with a sort of desperate intensity, some great piano accompanying the rise as the song goes on, and it's a very suitable closer.
End result: An enjoyable album, not what I would personally consider a classic, nor anything I'd be in a terrible rush to get back to or explore further, but a pleasant enough listen.
So, Love or Hate? Have to be
Love on this one. Again.