Saturday, May 15, 2010

Day One - Horse Feathers' Sad Songs


Beginning with a soft, tinkling piano, then gently supplemented by cello, the title track to Horse Feathers' latest album Thistled Spring, lays down beside you like a sleepy friend on a warm, breeze-less summer day. Justin Ringle's vocals sound like someone caught between deep contemplation and reverie. The song swirls and delicately builds until you could swear it's the coda to the saddest musical ever written, but it's done so beautifully you won't be able to pull yourself away, especially after these opening lines:

"An old love of mine to wed the worst man she finds
A blossom that's bloomed, in a house that's a tomb
trapped in the rhododendron fumes"

The entire album works as a piece to be heard together, by yourself, with no sharp objects in close proximity. It's elegant chamber folk scored by a small-scale appalachian orchestra. Riveting stuff.

Also included as a day one bonus is their stunning take on Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl".

Horse Feathers - "Thistled Spring"

Horse Feathers - "Orphan Girl"

4 comments:

Unknown said...

way to smooth weres the teenage kicks

Unknown said...

sorry typing error: way too smooth, Where's the teenage kicks?

bridaisy98 said...

That was a little slow and sad, but I give the piano a 6. It was O.K. over all. A little faster and it would have been awesome.

Ian said...

Horse feathers' Thistled Spring: kinda long, not much vocal. 5.5