Some albums are just so good that I'm afraid I'll never be able to do them justice. If you're running short of time, and you genuinely read reviews to help you decide whether or not to buy a CD, don't bother reading any more: just buy The Blue Trees. Heavily instrumental in bias, it is a soft, meditative and elegaic album that celebrates nature gently, by way of acoustic material from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci's most recent tours.
If you can imagine being able to hear a pastoral poem, like Arnold's "Thyrsis" or anything by Galway Kinnell or Gary Snyder, you can handily hear The Blue Trees in your mind's ear. Only eight tracks long, this album has alternately been described as a CD and an EP, but the length is just right for a straight-through listen, unlike the longer Spanish Dance Troupe. Although somewhat similar to Troupe, this album is softer, has fewer lyrics and favors neo-prog folk-rock over catchier, harder stuff like "Poodle Rockin'", the most highly praised track on SDT. The title track, which opens the disc, is the aural equivalent of watching a moonrise from a rope swing. "Lady Fair" is limned delicately and simply with the voice, violin, acoustic guitar and tambourines. "Fresher than the Sweetness in Water", a Honeybus cover, has easily the quickest tempo of any song on the album, which comes as a welcome break towards album's end and wakes the listener from the pensive lethargy into which she's almost certain to slip. The Blue Trees features a single song performed in Welsh: "Sbia Ar y Seren", a lullaby to the stars and a perfect album closer. It's the sort of melody that is so engaging that you can actually catch yourself trying to sing, in Welsh, as you run errands or perform mindless tasks.
I can't think of anyone who, in a quiet moment, wouldn't find this album soothing. It simply seems unlikely that there's anyone to whom The Blue Trees would not appeal; unlike some quieter music, none of the songs are overwhelmingly precious. It's inevitable that The Blue Trees will be compared to Nick Drake's work, and in an instrumental sense that's true: the craftsmanship and the musical tastes are similar, and the Beckettian minimalism is there, too. However, while Drake's depression saturates every track, malaise never once comes through on The Blue Trees. Its overall mood is thoroughly contented.
|
