Balmorhea - All Is Wild, All Is Silent

Release Date: 03/10/09
Genre: Folksy Instrumental

I should stop being surprise when this band releases a new album. I should also stop being surprise when their opening track is godly.

Review: Seriously, opening track, "Settler" is a very welcoming song, I love how there's a sprint towards something and they'll add a slight pause for the heck of it. Almost like they withheld my breath. But then it changes into a folksy lullaby. What are they singing? Who knows, but it feels great. Then it finishes with something I was not expecting, hand clapping. Mixed with a bunch of lovely stripped down melodies. So cool. So good. So dang fresh and clean.

Anyways, this band has been very consistence and I remember at the beginning, they were grouped with the post-rock crowd even thought they weren't that heavy, this album felt like they embraced those elements, like parts of "Harm and Boon" and "Night in the Draw" just felt like they been reading The Silent Ballet. Still, I would say they are more folk simply because of how outdoorsy they sound and there's not a lot of special effects being added.

Like "Elegy" has such sharp guitar playing. "Coahuila" seems to have so much clarity. I love it when songs can just clear all my troubles away and that's what "Coahuila" does, especially when the wordless vocals combine with the clash of all the melodies. Then "Truth" just reaches a bunch of emotive levels of story telling. Whenever the piano starts to fever, I get so excited.

Because I'm a loose fan (I heard everything they released so far), I think it's fair for me to say that they keep getting stronger. I loved their first album because it was something different from what I was used to. The second was better, but it had too much so I felt it was less organized then the first. "All in Wild, All is Silent" just seems to pull it all together. In a way, they have a epic format, except it doesn't spell it out for you. The songs gradually find their way home so nothing feels leftover or incomplete.

Summary: This album is great! The sound is very clean and the songs are very focus in delivering the imagery. The addition of faint vocals are done very well. When they get loud, they sound beautiful, but the calmer sections are the stuff that hits home. I sometimes ask, "how do they know what I feel?"

Key Tracks: Settler, Coahuila, Truth
Rating: 9/10