Customer Reviews

Halloween Alaska

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Everyone keeps trying to steal my Halloween, Alaska CD. This is the best band to come around after centuries of bad luck and is quickly becoming an underground favorite. From the building, captivating, frantic reaches of "All the Arms Around You" to the super mellow "Halloween" this is a CD you want to put on repeat while you pull your lover under the blankets. It's poignant, and plaintive, and sad, and hopeful. The track "Halloween" invokes that electric, expectant feeling of right before a late summer thundershower in the Midwest, when the air is thick and wet and lightening bugs are flickering around, and James Diers hauntingly sings "Here I'll make my home, again and again... again and again..."

In "Four Corners" he whispers, "I've found the one to keep" in such a bittersweet way, it makes you wonder what happened to make his declaration so nostalgic. Is he singing about the same person he called his "delicate slip of sunshine" from the slightly less nostalgic "Call it Clear"? ("Why do you think we're here? Is that why they call it clear?")

Here's to Halloween, Alaska's success. My iTunes will play this CD again and again, as I sit on our back porch with my husband and kittens and watch the fireflies flickering in the apple orchard, waiting for the approaching thunderstorm to let loose with its torrential downpour.

how this has managed to fly beneath the radar for so long is astonishing.

'well hello, little hellion. make yourself at home.' so opens halloween, alaska's debut album, the postal service's older, more sophisticated (and interesting) brother. it's a compelling and ultimately emotionally endearing little piece of ear candy. comparison's the ben gibbard's side project are perhaps inevitable (and even understandable), but anyone wanting to compare the two (or cast off halloween, alaska prematurely) does him or herself a serious disservice.

what strikes the listener in the intimacy and immediacy. James Dier's vocals aren't the strongest, but they womp you over the head with the emotionaly integrity and vulnerability blatantly absent from the majority of vocalists these days. the melodies, while not immediately memorable, manage to linger in your head and when you find yourself humming the melody three or four days later, it'll sound familiar, but you might not be able to immediately place it. it's deceptive in a way. it's at once familiar and completely new original. this sort of beautiful and understated subtlety seems to be halloween, alaska's mantra, and thank heaven's for it. it's almost as if fellow mid-westerners, Low, turned electronic.

in short, beautiful, lush, engaging music you can listen to repeatedly without ever tiring of it. in a day of throw-away pop songs, it's not small feat. and you'd be well-served to listen to the album with headphones to pick up all the subtle nuances, bells, and whistles.

hopefully this is the beginning of a long and fruitful career.

Very elegant, moving and beautiful compositions from this Minnesota band. It's hard not to get wrapped up in the sparkling guitars, smooth synth washes and the ethereal voice. "The Four Corners" and "You're It" are the standouts. Dont' hesitate to hear this.

3 1/2

The electronic melancholy found here sounds like Owen meets the Junior Boys. There are a few songs that derail into sterility or experimentally stagnate, but for the most part these guys lay it down, placing the often well contrasted vocals over tranquilly challenging rock.

The only two songs worth purchasing are "Telling Me" and "Call It Clear". Those two songs are seriously amazing, unique, life-soundtracks.

The rest of the album is just.. boring. I wish that it weren't so, and I believe these guys have tons of potential.

I had heard a sample clip of "all the arms around you" and found myself singing it all the time, often I only like one track from a particular artist but the offbeat asymetrical stylings kept me hooked, and it's now one of my favourite albums, a great buy!

Halloween, Alaska's self-titled album is such a surprise. My 18 year old son turned me on to them and I am impressed. If you can imagine the best of Sting updated to 2005 you sort of have it. Great new sound and ingeneous engineering. Relaxing, well written and playable at all times. Give it a try.