The Album Leaf/On!Air!Library! - A Lifetime or More
(Arena Rock)
Compilations—or any records which have tracks by more than one band—nearly always fail to retain any consistency and are rarely enjoyable to listen to from beginning to end. No better example exists in my mind than this terrible pairing of Jimmy Lavelle's The Album Leaf and newcomers (from New York) On!Air!Library! (by the way, did you see them name-checked in the video for "House of Jealous Lovers" by The Rapture?).
The three songs offered up by The Album Leaf are among the best he's released, offering more than enough explanation for why Sigur Ros will be backing him on his next album (which is currently being recorded in Sigur Ros' studio). All his usual tricks are employed: warm synthesizers, arpeggiated guitars, tight drumming, and his ever-present melancholy. Gone are any hints of the terrible digital keyboards that plagued Tristeza and the second Album Leaf record, leaving a succinct and perfectly stated sampling of Jimmy's ability to write moving instrumentals.
Then there's On!Air!Library!, who's appeal is limited to two kinds of people
(I'm assuming): 1) those who enjoy a band for their looks (there are two very attractive, waif-ish twin girls in the band) or 2) those who enjoy overly dramatic, poorly presented, pretentious and terrible pseudo- (or maybe post-) ambient gothic gloom. That's a lot of adjectives, but they're a lot of terrible. Anyway, apparently I don't fit into either of those categories.
The On!Air!Library! half of this CD is so bad it would weigh down anything. And while The Album Leaf's songs would do better in a less awkward context, they're strong enough to still make this CD an essential Album Leaf EP (just hit stop after track 3).
|
