Nattavaara Rocks
"Linger Through a Winter" CDR
EP
Lostheron
Genre: post-rock, rock
June 2008 |
A pretty if understated package makes way for a
pretty if understated collection of songs. Created under the
inward-looking eye of Swedish Nattavaara Rocks, the four-song
Linger Through a Winter EP apparently took a year and fifty
song snippets to complete - pretty massive prep work for a fifteen
minute opus. This dragging,
droney folk-pop record is reminiscent of city winter times and lonely
bedroom dwellers. There is a certain Red House Painters vibe in
the plodding song structure and Americana-tinged, unpolished vocals,
though the latter also remind me of Pinetop Seven.
Often the songs drag, but it is the winding and ethereal nature of
the sounds that gives this record a distinct quality; still, this can
be off-putting at first, and requires acclimatization. The most
straightforward pop song, "Linger Through a Winter," and the simplistic
yet very pretty "Instrumental No. 4" are the best tracks on here,
while the others seem to collapse in on their own introspection and
dreariness (the vocals, also, need to be higher in the mix). Next
time around, Nattavaara Rocks needs to make his songs a bit
crisper and more overtly melodic - or, alternatively, explore the
dronier, layered aspects of his music in more depth ("Pillow the Wild"
being the basic template). As it is, this is a decent demo but a bit
half-baked for a real release.
70%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 4 tracks, distributed by
the
label,
released 2007] |
