Customer Reviews

Akron/Family

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I can't recommend this album enough. This album has alot of beautiful folk music mixed in with experimental noise and melodies. A friend told me about this album, and at first I thought it was ok, but it's definately a grower. Now I can't get enough of it.

I'm not great at explaining individual songs, so I'll just recommend some songs to get a good idea of their sound. Try these first:

Running, returning (a beautiful epic song)
Italy
Shoes
Franny/You're Human
Hidden Track
Before and Again
I'll be on the water

The only songs on this record that I don't like too much are Suchness and Part of Corey. They're still good songs, just not as stellar as the rest of the tracks. And I can't say I like the burst of white noise in the beginning of one of those songs.

I'd give this album a 4 and 1/2, but since there's no 4 and 1/2 rating, I'll give it a 5. The good far outweighs the bad in my opinion. If you're looking for something new, and you are a fan of experimental folk music, I'd say you should definately give it a shot.

forget the freak folk descriptions, or the need to classify them as dark bluegrass. akron/family are simply strong musicians--pure & simple--no matter whether they are playing toy instruments, televisions, change machines, kazoos, or guitars. this album: great, melancholic lilt that is oddly hopeful & sweet. in the dead of winter, curl up in bed with it as you used to do with this mortal coil. (as for the reviewer who complains about them not getting on with their songs, clearly that person should stick to top 40 b/c he doesn't understand the value of static, noise, humming, and silence: all integral to real av-g composition. see: the tmc comparison above.) akron/family also have a great home recording disc they were selling at their shows in the states last summer: track it down through them: it is a wonderful miscellany. & go out of your way to see them live: they are powerhouses, perched on chairs. cd holds together as a whole (& should be listened to as such), but the tracks that make this album worth the purchase alone: "sorrow boy"; "i'll be on the water"; and "franny/you're human"...

Everyone seems to compare these guys with Devandra Banhart or Angels of Light cause of the label their on but I see them in a totally different light.

These guys are "out there" like many Young God artists yet they are way more melodic. I hear Grandaddy and Radiohead influences more than anything folky. Its just they are more organic than the two bands I mentioned.

Who doesn't want to hear "I'll be on the Water" sitting on a beach somewhere smokin a *****. Granted some of songs don't go anywhere, there is somthing hidden underneath each song which grabs you. Definitely one of the best releases of '05.

1. Folk music has always, by definition, reflected on the everyday thoughts and experiences of "regular" people. It is successful when it reaches people where they're at, without pretense, and leaves the crowd feeling united with a common understanding: that's my life they're singing about. Folk comes up from the roots and taps that shared feeling, whatever that is. It's the folk musician's job to "get it."

2. The current culture is fractured, increasingly complex and disorienting. Sometimes you have to climb in a hole somewhere to clear your head.

3. Akron/Family is channeling this culture with an unnerving clarity. The album does have some jarring, schizophrenic shifts. There's intense inimacy and hollow, clinical detachment, sometimes within the same breath. Sometimes you can't tell if he's singing in his bedroom or in an underpass. It may be difficult to pin down a common pathos or style. It might make you uneasy. And it really, really works. If it were at all possible to "sum it up" anymore, this album would be doing it, and doing it beautifully.

What can you say M Gira has done it again......I simply love this album....It is as all the other online reviews have said ...is a weird "neo folk" noise fusion......this album just sweeps over you. I have seen these guys live 3 times now....and not 1 show was the same ...in any discenrable way...except maybe the fact that one guy plays the guitar with a screwdriver......

Why should buy this album? cause its just great! the mellow soundscapes drift over you ..juxtaposed by weirdness.....this is the sound track to a warm summers evening with red wine,,...a lover....and a long hot bath.....the sheer joy the 4 guys have (and they are so funny live) just bleeds onto the plastic.....I'll leave others to get all finicky and breakdown each individual track.....and just leave it at....."thinking of you...there's lightning bolts in my chest....I know you know....I think our love's the best.."(I'll be on the water)

As this world gets older, and novelties increase along with our exposure to everything, you must consider that everything you are exposed to influences you in SOME way. This is an album that could have only been made in the 21st century. It does not suffer as a result. It is honest and at times, very sad. And yet, it does not wallow in self-pity or depression - it sounds both somber AND proud. Some of the production techniques are unusual (I love when artists experiment), and yet, quite often, it's usually just a voice and a guitar with ambient sound. Pretty minimal sounding to be the work of a band. This tells me that they didn't feel they had to play all the time - they're secure in their silences.

Like a lot of modern recordings, it triggers a lot of emotions, sometimes complex and contradictory. So it's very human. Which automatically propels it over a whole slew of computerized-sounding assembly-line CD's by so-called "artists". In some ways, it's of its time, and in others, it's timeless. I'm not sure how well I was able to review this....I think as life becomes more complex and artists' work reflect this, it might be harder to define 60 minutes of sounds in 2 paragraphs. But basically, this CD affects me deeply. They are a band to watch out for (in fact, I'm going to see them tonight!).

I was pretty floored by this record the second time I listened to it. I was initially into songs like I'll Be on the Water during the first listen, but once I listened to it again I started to pick up all the wonderful nuances and layered weird sounds that were in some of the more experimental songs.

These guys don't really sound like anybody else, but if I had to draw comparisons I'd say it's like the more wacked out Eric Gaffney songs from Sebadoh, only much more mellow and pretty.

I'd pick it up if you're in the mood for something different.

If you are in an empty room, you need this album. If you know the smell of cotton sheets where someone else has slept. you need this album. If there are sleeping pills on the bedside shelves and you're not sad though by yourself you double triple truly need this album. It's not Mazzy Star and it's not depressing and it makes you notice sunbeams through the blinds, and any time you want to to be not lonely by yourself, put on this album, and it will keep you mellow company.

This album is not filled with hooks and catchy verse-chorus-verse songs. It is more experimental, filled with songs that unfold at their own pace. The musical core of this album is acoustic instruments, but they are layered with sounds from a diverse palette ranging from electric guitars to vocal choruses to computerized blips. Lyrically, the songs are strongly infused with a "spiritual but not religious" ethos. After close listening, it should not surprise the listener that one of the founding members of the band present on this recording later left to live in a Buddhist Dharma center. The song structures are sometimes used to emphasize these ideas, as if representing the soundtrack of one's meditation on a Zen riddle. For example - "When is time going to change? / I'm ready" or "I am not my thoughts". It is hard to draw comparisons to other music. Akron/Family is more philosophical and spiritual than a lot of neo- or experimental- folk music. More musically experimental than Iron and Wine, less overtly religious than Sufjan Stevens, looser and more carefree than Joanna Newsom. Well worth a listen.

When vinyl is done right, you should hear everything much clearer than any other format. While this seems obvious, there have been some crappy vinyl masters lately. Fortunately, this first Akron/Family album mercifully avoids that routine. This debut sounded great on cd to begin with and the sweet sound of vinyl presents it in its best form. The vocal harmonies seem to stand out more, the noises and effects and details all seem to find their place (not buried)---all to make this one of the more enjoyable psychedelic, folk-fed experimental trips you can take on wax. Although the Fam have put out other notable works (particularly "Love is Simple" and the Angels of Light split), this is my personal favorite and hearing it on vinyl is truly worth the price of admission....Highly recommended!