Shady Bard - From the Ground Up

Release Date: 05/28/07
Genre: Indie Folk

I discovered these guys thanks in part to Yndi Halda's myspace bulletin. How comes these guys only have 15000 tracks scrobbed on last.fm?

Review: The album starts very mellow, giving the impression that the band is shy, but once you get to track 3, "These Quiet Times," everything just rises up in beauty. I love his worried voice as he repeats "feed the birds in the winter time" over and over.

The greatest part comes in the middle chunk of the album starting with "Treeology." It's very haunting melodically, but it always ends calming. "Torch Song" has the best music, and could stand alone. I also enjoy that occasionally, a female background vocals are present, but it doesn't becoming overuses, only when it's needed.

There are times within the songs, it'll go through a long 'no vocal' zone, and it's done neat. "From The Ground Up" and "Frozen Lake" are entirely instrumental, and they sound great, but the lead singers voice is more comforting, so it does feel empty, just a bit.

"Summer Came When We Were Falling Out" has my favorite lyrics, and it sounds different from the rest of the album because he's singing through some echo effect. But it gives you chills on how reflected it is.

Summary: I don't know how accessible these guys are, it's a short album, but everything is done right and it gets better on each listen. Very comforting, very mellow, and as a whole, the pace and texture couldn't go any smoother.

Key Tracks: These Quiet Times, Torch Song, Summer Came When We Were Falling Out
Rating: 8/10