The Weeknd, House Of Balloons

House Of Balloons is one of the more intriguing albums of the year for me. I'm not a big fan of music that celebrates or glorifies sex and drug use, but The Weeknd (Canadian R&B singer Abel Tesfaye), has crafted a highly stylized, dark and moody album that is hard to ignore. On the first of what will be a trilogy of albums, Tesfaye creates a lush, atmospheric landscape that provides such an inviting backdrop to set his unsettling lyrics against, that I found myself drawn into these songs and then unable to escape them. 
High for This   

Death Cab For Cutie, Codes And Keys

I was lucky enough to see Death Cab For Cutie last month, when they performed live for the first time in over two years. What struck me, when they played the sold out show at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle, was how good they sounded. A crisp sound that was sonically rich and finely textured, the band had an invigorated musical sense about them. These qualities can be heard on Codes And Keys, the band's new album. Lyrically, the album also feels a bit anew, reflecting a more upbeat mood than what I am accustom to getting from the band. But, as always, Ben Gibbard's writing is superb. Overall, another fine outing from a band that I have highly respected for many, many years.

You Are A Tourist   

Sounding Out: The Leisure Society

The Leisure Society, from Brighton, England, released their second album, Into The Murky Water this past month. There is this wonderful, whimsical quality and nature to these songs and the overall tone of the album. It has fast become one of my favorites of the year, so far.

Nick Hemming, the driving force behind the band said that there wasn't a specific idea in his head from which these songs were born. Songs usually appear when he least expects them; He could be watching a film or cycling to the shop.

“One of the songs, The Hungry Years, was actually inspired by Burt Bacharach’s score for Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. I was watching the film and two beautiful chords appeared, I dashed to the spare room and started writing the song. As a result there’s now a song credited to Hemming/Bacharach, which is quite a thrill, despite the fact that I’ve never actually met him.”

You can hear lots of different influences within these songs. Nick has mentioned bands such as The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Beatles as bands that he loves. I was curious about the artists that have had an impact on everyone else in the band.

Sitting in a dressing room at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, some of Nick's bandmates shared their own influential artists. Christian Hardy, who shares vocals with Nick and plays multiple instruments mentioned Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Grizzly Bear, and Radiohead. Daz said Jack Bruce. Sebastian Hankins, who plays drums, said The Band. And Helen Whitaker, who plays flute and sings had three with Bjork, Belle & Sebastian, and Mum.

While the band’s music may be inspired and influenced by many different artists, the lyrics seem to stem from a more focused place. I told Nick that it seems to me that lyrically, this album originates from a very different place than The Sleeper, their last album. He agreed.

“Yeah, definitely. Writing The Sleeper was a very cathartic process. I was thoroughly miserable at the time and found it comforting to write the songs. With this album I was in a much more hopeful state of mind, but musing on the more difficult times. I also realized that all the “wasted days” made me the musician I am today. There’s a song Although We All Are Lost which best sums up the way I was feeling whilst writing.“

With eight people in the band, I asked Nick how much collaboration takes place in the writing process. “I generally write alone and I don’t feel comfortable playing a new song to anyone until I’m sure it’s finished. Nick said that he has hundreds of rough song ideas that will never see the light of day. “I think it’s best to edit myself before inflicting my songs on the outside world! With this album, I made rough demos of most of the songs for the rest of the band.”

Nick added that once they started working together everyone had their own ideas to bring to the arrangements. For example, Mike Siddell, their violin player, scored the string arrangements for a few of the songs.

For a number of years, Nick and the other members of The Leisure Society have been involved with the Willkommen Collective, a community of musicians, promoters and artists, based in Brighton. Given their participation, I was curious if playing with the myriad of musicians that participate in the collective has impacted the direction of the band's sound. Almost apologetically, Nick said that he hasn’t seen much the Willkommeners since staring the new album.

“Into The Murky Water was a completely obsessive pursuit, so I couldn’t really concentrate on anything else. However, without Tom from Willkommen, I never would have met Mike, Will, or Helen, and without them, The Leisure Society would be a very different prospect indeed! Since I started recording under the Leisure Society name, I’ve been collecting different sounds - the first recording had saxophone, tuba and double bass. Being lucky enough to work with such talented musicians now hugely elevates the songs.”

I told Nick that I love the harmonizing that takes place throughout this collection of songs. Nick said that the harmonizing comes quite naturally most of the time. “I know nothing about harmony theory, but I think that years of listening to The Beach Boys has imbued me with a limited, but instinctive knowledge of harmony.” On the album, Nick and Christian sing most of the harmonies. “Our voices blend nicely – he takes the high road and I take the low road.”

There is this great neo-folk / folk-rock music revival taking place in the states and it is being embraced on quite a large scale by listeners…in a way that I don't think has been seen in years if not decades. From what I can see, to some extent, this is happening in Britain as well. Many who have written about The Leisure Society have categorized their music in this genre. I asked Nick if he saw the band’s music as being a part of this genre and movement.

“To be honest I don’t see The Leisure Society as folky at all! I can see why other people do though. I guess it’s the use of acoustic instruments. I think of us more as a pop band, albeit one who obsess over lyrics and arrangements and use 18th century harpsichords and church organs on our recordings.”

So what is drawing so many folks into this neo-folk music? “I haven’t a clue why this new “folk” boom is happening,” Nick said. “I actually toured with Mumford & Sons just as they were about to go stellar. It was interesting seeing hordes of teenage girls going wild for a banjo player!”

In this digital age of music, the album jacket or cover has seen to have lost its importance. The cover for both The Sleeper and Into The Murky Water are both quite quirky, distinctive, and fun, in very retro kind of a way. I asked Nick who was responsible for creating the concept and feel of the covers and what was the idea behind it?

The design concept was by a guy called Julian Austin. I’m a glutton for nostalgia and I wanted something that reminded me of the old Jules Verne novel illustrations and Jacques Cousteau documentaries. I actually found some artwork from an old B Movie called “Around The World Under The Sea”, by an amazing artist called Frank McCarthy. We managed to track his widow down in the Arizona desert and she gave her permission to use the artwork, unfortunately Warner Pictures weren’t interested in helping out so we had to commission our own painting at the last minute. Julian came up with the whole die-cut diver concept – we really wanted to make the packaging special, something as detailed and thought out as the music inside."

After the critical success of The Sleeper, I was curious how much pressure Nick felt to avoid the clichéd, Sophomore slump, that seems to be tattooed on bands that have had especially successful and unique debut albums.

“We definitely felt pressure to try and improve on The Sleeper. Whilst recording the first album we were just making music for ourselves, but this time around we knew we had an audience.”

Nick said that he had many sleepless nights obsessing over lyrics, arrangements and marimba sounds. “We always felt we were making something special, but by the time everything had been recorded, I’d lost all my objectivity, it was nice to hand the reins over to Christian so he could make sense of the madness.”

On the band's website, Christian is quoted as saying "On this album, he's (Nick) immersed himself in all the things he was looking at. It's more colourful and vibrant, and it's full of happiness and terror. He's the guy poised to dive on the cover. He's heading into the murky water."

Nick may have dived into murky waters, but he, Christian, and the rest of the band are swimming in crystal clear waters with this collection of songs. Into The Murky Water is simply terrific and one of the year's best albums. 

My Morning Jacket, Circuital

My Morning Jacket has played with the sound of their music and the space in which they have been creating it for the past decade. While I am a huge fan of the band, I have felt at times the music, and especially Jim James' vocals, were set just too far back with too much reverb. For their sixth studio album, the band took up shop and recorded in a church gym. The result is a sound that is naturally open and airy and sounds just great. The collection of songs on Circuital is also more cohesive and focused than the musically ambitious and diverse last album, Evil Urges. Getting back to their southern rock roots, this is the album that I wanted back in 2008.     
Circuital   

Sounding Out: Delay Trees

Back in September of 2010, Delay Trees released their self-title album in their home country of Finland. In the months that followed, the album gained attention outside of Finland and the band saw the album get released in other countries. This past month, American label Friendly Fire Recordings, released the album here in the states.

When I spoke with Rami Vierula, the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the band, he said with the release, Delay Trees have realized a dream that they would not have thought possible a few years back.

“It has been so exciting just the fact that Friendly Fire wanted to release our album in the States….It is a big thing for a Finnish band to get a release in the US. Most of the artists and popular culture that we lived with growing up came from America. And America holds a special place in our hearts, that is also why I am singing about dreams of America on Cassette 2012.”

I had read in another interview Rami describe the band’s music as ‘a quiet melancholic city with a strong Edward Hopperian mood around it.’ I asked him what it was about Edward Hopper’s works that inspired him. He said that the first time he saw an Edward Hopper painting, he was drawn in.

“It struck me as a very pretty and very serene picture, but it also had this weird melancholy around it. I think that his painting speaks the same language as some of our music in that it's minimalistic and it is very concentrated on the mood and the atmosphere in the picture, and there are very small, tiny, spaces that can take the picture into another sphere.”

Rami said that while the world of painting art inspires him, the cinematic art form is closer to his heart. “Sometimes I watch a movie and it leaves a feeling or mood inside me that I just want to somehow use. When I was a teenager, I went to see Mulholland Drive by David Lynch. It left this weird mood in my head and it forced me to create something.”

Rami also pointed to the Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni as another filmmaker that has had a dramatic impact on him as an artist and musician. “I never got into Antonioni’s movies, story-wise, but his imagery really affected me. He has this style that is very, very slow…..slow takes and big, almost panoramic images. I remember when I was writing the closing track of the album 4:45am….it is about an auto-biographical situation or happening that I lived through….I sort of wanted to think about it as an Antonioni movie, so the sounds are sort of static all the time and there is this mellow dreamy canvas that the melody and lyrics fall on.” Musically, his hope is that songs, like this one, create many images in the listener’s head.

4:45am   

There is definitely a story being told in the dynamics of the music. Quiet tender moments give way to walls of sound that crescendo and then fall back down. These changing dynamics are all intended to help create a cinematic feel to the songs, says Rami.

Rami said that the downside of Delay Trees’ music, like the slower art cinema movies that he loves, is that it really requires a commitment of time to fully let it create an atmosphere for someone to go inside. Rami said that for this reason he is jealous for bands like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart who can make wonderful pop songs that are instantly understood. “Our music is very different. But we have to do our music this way even though it may not be the wisest thing to do.” He laughed. “It is definitely not the most popular.”

One of the things that I appreciated about this album stylistically is the clarity and crispness of the vocals. They are placed right there on top and they are not buried in a wall of sound. I find it to be refreshing and I like the juxtaposition it creates between the vocals and the sound and texture that is taking place in the background.

“We love the dream pop style, and bands liked The Cocteau Twins or Slowdive, especially Slowdive. I really like that their lyrics and vocals had this clarity. On this album, we were aiming for something for people to be able to approach and grasp onto a little bit more easily than just a wall of sound in the vocals.”

Rami said that when the vocal are clearer it can definitely give the straight emotion from the singer to the listener. “I am not really sure if our album or my vocal performance does it,” he laughed, “but at it’s best it can do that.” He said that they wanted to maintain the vocal clarity for the lyrics as well.

Lyrically, I told Rami that the main character or protagonist in these songs seems to be really struggling to make sense of his world and find any happiness. I asked if there was hopefulness for this person or these people.

Rami said that he does not like to explain lyrics too much. Leaving open spaces for people to interpret the lyrics is important to him. It is what keeps people coming back to books or music or film over time. “I do think that is why people listen to albums over and over again or go see movies that they have already seen..they want to make sense of it and dwell in the mood that the movie or music creates. And that is what I have wanted to do with my lyrics.”

When I pushed him, Rami did talk a little bit more about his lyrics. Some of the songs he said are about the depression that the everyday life creates because of the unemployment in the country or just the long winters.

Photo By Aapo Huhta

I joked with him that it is warm and sunny out now and reason to be happy. “Well, yeah, and I love the weather now, and I’m quite a happy guy, but during the summer time I usually don’t write very much. It happens during autumn and when it starts to get darker and colder. Now it is full of light and it is warm and it will be this way for the next four months, but when it is six months of darkness and coldness it can get in your head.”

“I don’t know if it is part of being Finnish….we are quite a melancholy people. In America, you do have a much more optimistic way of dealing with life and futures. I do think that it can be quite hard for people to listen to our music, but we don’t want to make it hard. It is just my feelings and stories that I, or people around me have gone through." In Finland, he said, many find his lyrics melancholy, but hopeful.

I asked Rami specifically about the song About Brothers, which is a wonderful song and a band favorite. “This is really about my feelings about ending a relationship with a friend of mine. I don’t have biological brothers, but I do feel that he is a brother of mine. When you come to the point of people having kids and moving to other towns because of their jobs or lives, it feels like the old friends that you had are not the same anymore because of what life makes them.”

About Brothers   

With the album having been out now for nine months, I asked Rami if the band has started working on new songs.

“We actually booked a studio weekend a month or so ago and recorded an EP. It was exciting to go and do something without any pressure or goals.”

Rami said that it has been hard to write new material. I asked if it was harder stepping away from the older material or finding a new space in which to be creative? Rami said that it was a bit of both, but he was not sure which was harder.

“In Europe the record was very well received critically. It creates a pressure for making new music. Should we follow the same pattern with new songs or not? I think that we are over it now. We want to be pressure free and keep things fresh for us as well. I am not sure which one is harder, the space for creating new music or clinging on to the old music."

Without sounding patronizing, Delay Trees feel a bit like ‘the little Finnish band that could.’ They are a band with a lot of passion, a lot of talent, a great debut album, and a humble and hopeful way about viewing their future. With the American release of their album, they hope to find a wider audience to help propel them into the future, but they know that the future is ultimately what they make of it.

“We really do love being in the band. We have a good time together and there is such a passion for all of us. If it does not happen, and I am pretty sure that it doesn’t, you keep going on and keep hoping that good things will happen elsewhere. Sometimes it is a slower path that you have to take, especially when you are a dream pop band from Finland!”

Typhoon, A New Kind Of House

I first heard Typhoon about a month ago. Given that this twelve person band from Portland, OR has been playing and recording since 2005, I was surprised that I was not familiar with their music already. In March they released this wonderful EP, A New Kind Of House. Musically and lyrically, these five richly textured songs are really well conceived and realized. There are new things to discover in these songs with each listen which makes listening to these songs a lot of fun. This past weekend, the band played live at the Sasquatch Festival. You can hear their great performance here.

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