Absence

Paper Route | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 28, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Motown
• ASIN: B001YXXSPG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,709 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Already hailed as one of Paste's "4 To Watch," Paper Route has earned acclaim for their ingenious electronica-based rock and intensely intimate lyricism. The Nashville-based band's Universal Motown debut, "ABSENCE," is an ambitious and impassioned collection of widescreen modern music, rich with shimmering textures and intricately crafted sonics. Songs like "Carousel" and the elegiac "Are We All Forgotten" are haunting and emotional, alighting upon such common themes as love and loss, rebirth and redemption. Throughout the album, Paper Route express resilience in the face of adversity, ultimately achieving transcendence though honesty and a sense of real circumstance. The work of a rare band that's not afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves, "ABSENCE" is both acutely personal and altogether universal. "We're very sentimental, emotional, hopelessly romantic guys," says JT Daly (vocals, keyboards, samples), "and that's not cool. But we've found that when you are just brutally honest, people connect with that. A lot of things that people are running away from, we've always found ourselves gravitating towards." "The most honest and real songs come from times that aren't necessarily the best," says Chad Howat (programming, piano, keyboards, bass). "So over the course of making this record, we've gone through failed relationships, sicknesses and deaths among our friends and families. But that's life, and hopefully it will resonate with other people." The founding members of the band hail from churchgoing families in the American Heartland. Daly and Andy Smith (vocals, guitars, harmonica) met through a family connection and began writing songs together. They converged with Howat in college and formed their first band. The band relocated to Nashville after a year, but soon called it a day. "The band never quite got off the ground," says Smith. "But we felt there was a chemistry between us that we'd later find hadn't fully been realized." The three musicians went their separate ways, but maintained their tight knit friendship. Smith pursued a career in social work, while Daly continued to explore visual arts and film. For his part, Howat bought a laptop and taught himself to record and program. Plagued by insomnia, he worked long into the night, creating experimental music inspired by such artists as Air and Boards of Canada. "Chad started coming up with really interesting stuff," says Smith, "this smart, emotional, electronic pop music. The more that he got into it, the more it felt like a new direction. It was as accessible as possible, yet still flooded with as much integrity as we could muster. It just seemed like an exciting thing." "It all came together as soon as I started writing songs on the computer," Howat says. "It felt like I had finally found my voice." He soon invited Smith and Daly to contribute vocals to the recordings and the trio of friends found themselves abuzz with creative energy. "We all kind of got the bug again once we got going," says Howat. "This is our drug," Daly says. "We can't quit coming back to this. We always just circle back to making music." By mid-2006, they decided to grow their project - now dubbed Paper Route, conjuring up innocent images of their youth - into something with wider appeal. They released a self-titled EP and began to ponder how to bring their sound to the stage. The problem was resolved with the inclusion of drummer Gavin McDonald. Though Paper Route continued to build music around samplers and other programs, the addition of a live drummer gave the fledging band a richer, more human sound, as did a musical arsenal incorporating glockenspiel, accordion, melodica, piano, and guitars.

"I knew it would take a lot of work to incorporate live drumming into the band's sound," McDonald says. "But after our first few shows, it was obvious that it was going to work and also open up new possibilities creatively."

"The three of us had learned to operate as one," says Howat, "but we knew Gavin would get us out of our comfort zone, add some healthy tension and challenge us to go further, artistically." "It also allowed us to not dive completely into the synthetic element of being an electronic band," adds Smith. "We love using computers as instruments - the options are amazing - but there's something about organic instruments that you can't argue with, that seems timeless." Paper Route's brand of laptop Americana utilizes modern instrumentation to give life to an otherwise classicist tack that inextricably connects the band to its adopted home city's mythic past. Nevertheless, in a town known around the world as Music City USA, Paper Route's synthetic symphonics set them apart. "We're kind of the black sheep here, sonically speaking," Howat says. "But there's something to be said about the allure of Nashville. There are undertones to the whole history of American music in the way we approach songwriting." Having all grown up in the church, a series of recurring lyrical motifs revealed themselves in songs such as "Be Healed" and "Dance On Our Graves." Thoughtful and inquisitive, the songs of "ABSENCE" wrestle with life's myriad miracles and mysteries - Do we need change or do we actually need healing? Will the ghosts of our past stay with us forever? Is God really there? "Whether it's some spiritual void or the loss of a lover or the absence of affection from a wife or a father," Howat adds. "It's a theme that runs through the record - wanting things to be how they were, missing things that just aren't there anymore." When the time came to make its full-length debut, Paper Route opted to forego a proper studio to work in Chad and Gavin's Victorian home in the center of town. The band recorded in Chad's bedroom, spending close to a year tracking much of what would ultimately become "ABSENCE." In September of 2008, Paper Route chose to isolate themselves in order to apply finishing touches to the record. They began looking for the right spot, a house where they could be inspired to fully focus on their vision. "It had to make us feel like the homes we had when we were growing up," Daly says, "like when we all had our paper routes. It had to stir up that sense of wonder." They found the ideal location in Nunnelly, Tennessee, about an hour outside of Nashville. The house - located on 200 sprawling acres - proved the ideal artistic environment, prompting the creation of a number of new songs, including `Lovers' Anthem' and "Wish." After an extended gestation period which saw the band facing struggles with both art and life its ownself, Paper Route is now eager to bring "ABSENCE" to the people, giving their powerful, personal songs the chance to flourish and fulfill their infinite promise. "We're ready to bring these songs to our listeners," Daly says, "to just live them out, to get them out of our system. So much of our life have just been paused in these songs and we really can't move on until we start playing them live. We're all really ready for this."

Product Description

Already hailed as one of Paste's ''Four To Watch,'' Paper Route has earned acclaim for their ingenious Electronica-based Rock and intensely intimate lyricism. The Nashville-based band's 2009 debut album, Absence, is an ambitious and impassioned collection of widescreen modern music, rich with shimmering textures and intricately crafted sonics. Album features the stand out 'Carousel' that was chosen to be a full two minute music bed for MTV's The City trailer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up and Coming Artist Releases Phenomenal Album, May 30, 2009

By 

K. Ilvonen - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Absence (Audio CD)

It's tough to not sound like a pretentious music elitist when you are discussing something you feel very passionate about. So if I come across as one right now, I apologize right off the bat. If you can't find something to like in Paper Route, then you don't appreciate good music. It's even tough for me to try and translate my thoughts on this album when I can't even fully comprehend how complex it is.

Paper Route is a four piece band from Nashville Tennessee. The band was formed in 2004 after several other bands had disassembled. As of late the band has been touring with the heavyweights of the music scene today such as Paramore, Jack's Mannequin, and Copeland. Audiences and fans alike have been thoroughly impressed and have had nothing but great things to say about the band, mostly because they have only been touring on a couple EP's and haven't had a lot of material to work with, which brings us to the present place and time, April 28th 2009. Paper Route's debut album Absence is officially available. So how does it stack up? Let's just say that it's one of the best albums of 2009 so far.

Now, when I heard that Paper Route was going on tour with Paramore I gave them a listen and it was impressive. They had well written songs, but nothing really stood out to me, so going into Absence, I had no real basis to go by which made the album so amazing. It's was one of those experiences when you discover a band for the first time and are completely blown away and that overwhelming feeling of joy and adrenaline takes control of you. It is really unexplainable unless you have had it, but that's what music does to people.

Absence starts out with the a slow opener called "Enemy Among Us," which I probably wouldn't have picked as the starting track but its smooth melodies draw you in for more. "Wish" chases the slow opening track with more intensity and a better example of what the band is all about. Daly lays down the soft lines "The memories of losing you, you're like a ghost/ Tracing where I said to you/ I wish you would listen to get through it," over the mix of synth, samples, and catchy piano lines. "Carousel," the first single off the album probably has the most market ability for the band. Again, Daly sings about a relationship where things continue to go on until its gone too far. The chorus, as simple as it is, just seems to work, "On and on and on we go/ Just like a carousel that's lost control/ We don't know why, we don't know why/ We go, we go, we go in circles." While the song isn't too over the top, its pretty fast for their slow and melodic style. "Good Intentions" is probably my least favorite track on the album. Although it is filled with heavy lyrics, the background female vocals remind me of some backing track you would hear back in the 90's. "Tiger Teeth" contains a simple beat that almost has an oriental touch to it, but it isn't over done. The way the band blends their vocals, samples, and instrumentation is just pure genius. They seem to do things where you wouldn't expect them and it ends up working out for the best. "No Sudden Revelations" shows another one of the bands multiple personalities, displaying their style of post rock to the fullest; it starts off with soothing instrumentation and shows how Daly uses his voice as an instrument. As the song progresses, more layers are added with the various voices and chorus effect to boot. This ends quite abruptly as "Gutter" storms in with a heavy beat that sounds like The Wu-Tang Clan is about to drop some killer verses. Although they do not, it's quite alright as Paper Route demonstrate how to take a song with heavy synth and make it completely original and creative unlike other artists. To close, the album is "Dance On Our Graves" and it does so on a high note. Daly's repetition of the chorus "I need you now/ I need you now more than ever before" gets stronger as the song progresses. The album comes to a close with the final lines, "When we see the light when we're going home/ We'll dance on our graves with our bodies below/ We'll sing glory hallelujah," leaving you moved and wanting more.

I can see this record being the Illuminate of 2009 if people give it the chance. It hold the same credentials and value as that record and deserved to be heard. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have heard in some time and it has been stuck in my head since I heard it. This band is definitely worth your time, so don't think twice about picking this up. With 2009 holding a lot of promises as far as music goes, this album will definitely live up to its expectations.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible, May 10, 2010

By 

E. Jurkovic - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Absence (Audio CD)

I absolutely love this album and find it refreshing to hear real original music. Buy this for sure.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Amazing, July 7, 2009

By 

Olivia Cumberland - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Absence (Audio CD)

I bought this cd for the song, "Carousel", because I heard it on a person's myspace. Little did I know that this is one AMAZING band. I couldn't stop listening to the cd; every song is well done. The music is beautiful and the lyrics are meaningful. I highly recommend buying this, as well as Paper Route's other ep's.