Gilded Age [Enhanced]

Norfolk & Western | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 11, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Hush Records
• ASIN: B000EOTF94
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,957 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

"...The kind of album that rewards multiple listens, revealing details slowly but surely, and once it captures you, it's hard to escape its grasp. But then, it's hard to imagine why you'd want to." - PITCHFORKMEDIA

"There is an overarching visceral and sustaining appeal to this album." - PopMatters

"Absolutely beautiful and moving, at times soaring, at times hushed, never what you'd expect...this is a fantastic work." - DELUSIONS OF ADEQUACY

"A glorious, hallucinatory piece of work." - ALL MUSID GUIDE

The only band on the circuit with a Victrola in tow, Norfolk & Western has long embraced the mystery of music with a timeworn patina. It is this service to song craft and willingness to step out of the spotlight that has perhaps has kept their name from the being writ with the tallest letters on the marquee. Both Selzer and partner Rachel Blumberg have played supporting roles in other well-known acts, as backing band for like-minded troubadour M Ward, and Blumberg as the winsome drummer for The Decemberists and Laura Veirs.

A Gilded Age signals the dawning of a new era for N&W. Selzer has long demonstrated the ability to craft exquisitely defined, sonically arresting songs, but with A Gilded Age (recorded at Type Foundry Studios), he helps Norfolk & Western flex their songwriting muscles with dramatic, singular results. The songs on A Gilded Age cascade dynamically and unrelentingly - elevating the long-form EP format to new heights - from the trademark Victrola opening to the positively invigorating, overdriven guitar and banjo attack of the title track. Perhaps more so than any band in recent memory, Norfolk & Western have distilled their strengths with a collection of songs so undeniably strong they are virtually assured a spot in the canon of indie-folk legends.