Customer Reviews

Leaves Turn Inside You

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Beautiful and breathtaking. I'm new to Unwound, so maybe their other material was better as Mr. One Star-RAting Narrow-Minded Man stated, but this is pretty friggin' good and incredibly spaced out. Easily stands up to the releases in the post-rock vein, or atleast experimental rock, since it's really hard to explain. I read somewhere that they were influenced by 60's psychadelia (espescially in production, in particular vocal production, which is appareant) and 70's karutrock/art rock just as much as they were arty post-punk and shoegazer.
In other words, try imagining Slint, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, King Chrimson, Brian Eno, and some 60's band all put together in a room and asked to behave. In other other words, just listen to it, cause I'm an amateur musicologist and don't really know what I'm talking about, but hey, I'm trying.
But anywho, combine all those influences into precise, concise, pop song structures and you have an amzing album. All the parts flow seamlessly, ranging from shorter and to-the-point peices like "December" and "Scarlette" to epic masterstrokes like "Terminus" and "Below THe Salt". Lyrically, the songs seem to be abstract poetic takes on relationships, although they tend to venture into ambigous and confused realms. They simultaneously seem to take on existenstial, maybe even nihilstic, emotions ("Don't lie to summarize the truth in place of life/Create a world to house your love" from "Below THe Salt"). Also, Pitchfork recommends this to people who like to dabble a bit in the cough syrup, if you know what I'm getting at (haha...ugh. I hate myself).

I'm another longtime Unwound fan, having owned and worn out each of their six previous releases. I picked up Leaves Turn Inside You expecting more of the same - dirty yet melodic post-punk rock. Admittedly it's a sound I'm less excited about these days, and although I've loved Unwound in the past, I really only expected to get about three good listens out this bad boy before filing it away. As has been said though, this isn't the classic Unwound I'd come to know and love, and that's really all for the better. I feel that in as much as I've changed as a listener, they've changed as a band. I'm currently up to about 12 listens, with no plans to take this out of the player anytime soon.

The band has managed to take their already strong songwriting capabilities to new heights by using the studio (built from the ground up, as another reviewer pointed out) as a creative tool. The resulting recording is a decidedly mellower work, yet one that's increased the band's depth a hundred fold. This is a double album in the classic sense: It's epic, it's varied, it demands multiple listens, and it challenges the listener with a wide array of sounds and styles.

With that I'd just like to add my voice to the fold: Stellar work, Unwound!

I would have to say this is one of the top 10 releases of 2001, which is saying a lot due to the strong albums that came out that year. I recommend this album to all indie rock fans and it may even be accessible for some of your Radiohead obsessed friends. Just go out and buy it you really won't regret it.

I have but one great regret in life so far: Having been witness to Unwound's live sonic fury some seven times before, I chose to see Television play their "historic" reunion set at the 2002 All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Los Angeles--a set that coincided with Unwound's. If I had only known at the time that that Unwound show on March 16 would be the band's second to last, before their break-up announcement on April 1st, (which I swore at the time must be a bad April fool's joke), I would have forsaken Television without a moment's notice. Not that the Television show was a disappointment. Hearing "Marquee Moon" played live was like traveling back in time, back to the late 1970s, a time I must adore if for any reason other than the fact that we were all digging our ultra liberal peanut growing tree hugging President. So where am I in this review? I'm trying to live in the present but I keep slipping into the past to avoid the awful truth: Unwound is with us no more. I have searched and searched for a worthy replacement, but no band seems to stretch the medium of sound and emotion so completely, striking chords of alienation and sadness. Leaves is the culimination of Unwound's decade long quest to discover the perfect aural accompanyment to existential angst, yet differentiating itself from the band's five previous studio albums (each of which I must also rate with five stars), Leaves turns the corner from anger to resignment, restless motion to mature contemplation, a testament to the band entering the mature phase of its own growth. I have no single favorite song on this album. Each of the tracks seems to be perfectly crafted, organic in shaping, and being shaped by, all the other tracks on the album, though if I had to pick a stand-out, it would be RadioGra, the instrumental fifth song on the second disk, which opens up with "radio show" theme music played as a backdrop to a dialogue(is it in German?), which all sounds as if it were broadcast from a dusty vacuum tube radio from the 1940s. The lush mellotron driven harmonies evoke so much beauty and sadness. So much nostalgia. Autumnal change is the mood that pervades the entire album, and it "leaves" me thinking that this young band was simply too young to die. Leaves turn and then fall, but they grow back, don't they? And the tree they grow from gets older, spreading its branches further--doesn't it? I can only think that this great band, like the great old growth forests of the Northwest, should keep living forever, and that Unwound's early demise reflects the desperation of this age that we live in, where nothing seems to last for long, and the world is being choked by corporate greed and pollution and politicians without vision. Where is my Unwound?

I have but one great regret in life so far: Having been witness to Unwound's live sonic fury some seven times before, I chose to see Television play their "historic" reunion set at the 2002 All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Los Angeles--a set that coincided with Unwound's. If I had only known at the time that that Unwound show on March 16 would be the band's second to last, before their break-up announcement on April 1st, (which I swore at the time must be a bad April fool's joke), I would have forsaken Television without a moment's notice. Not that the Television show was a disappointment. Hearing "Marquee Moon" played live was like traveling back in time, back to the late 1970s, a time I must adore if for any reason other than the fact that we were all digging our ultra liberal peanut growing tree hugging President. So where am I in this review? I'm trying to live in the present but I keep slipping into the past to avoid the awful truth: Unwound is with us no more. I have searched and searched for a worthy replacement, but no band seems to stretch the medium of sound and emotion so completely, striking chords of alienation and sadness. Leaves is the culimination of Unwound's decade long quest to discover the perfect aural accompanyment to existential angst, yet differentiating itself from the band's five previous studio albums (each of which I must also rate with five stars), Leaves turns the corner from anger to resignment, restless motion to mature contemplation, a testament to the band entering the mature phase of its own growth. I have no single favorite song on this album. Each of the tracks seems to be perfectly crafted, organic in shaping, and being shaped by, all the other tracks on the album, though if I had to pick a stand-out, it would be RadioGra, the instrumental fifth song on the second disk, which opens up with "radio show" theme music played as a backdrop to a dialogue(is it in German?), which all sounds as if it were broadcast from a dusty vacuum tube radio from the 1940s. The lush mellotron driven harmonies evoke so much beauty and sadness. So much nostalgia. Autumnal change is the mood that pervades the entire album, and it "leaves" me thinking that this young band was simply too young to die. Leaves turn and then fall, but they grow back, don't they? And the tree they grow from gets older, spreading its branches further--doesn't it? I can only think that this great band, like the great old growth forests of the Northwest, should keep living forever, and that Unwound's early demise reflects the desperation of this age that we live in, where nothing seems to last for long, and the world is being choked by corporate greed and pollution and politicians without vision. Where is my Unwound?

I wasn't sure what to expect when I breached the shrink wrap on Leaves Turn Inside you. All I knew is that I kept meaning to buy an Unwound album and this was the newest. The fact that it was double indicated it might be a Statement album of some sort, which can be a good or a bad thing. In this case it's a good thing- a very very good thing. I took the plunge and found one of my top three favorite CDs of all time. (the other two are constantly lobbying for #1, which is why i can't be more definitive).

I am a fan of the DIY sound if it's isn't too low-fi. Unwound create a unique sound space in their recording studio. Atmospheric reverb, a few effects pedals and reverse tape loops dubbed after the fact onto what sounds like two or three-take live tracks makes for music that is at once warm and pulsing, and cold and dark. Some of these tracks are downright scary. I think you could put "Summer Freeze" on the soundtrack of any horror movie you can think of and it would fit in just fine.

Mention "indie" and "prog" in the same sentence and you'll make a lot of people run away screaming. But the formula works with amazing effectiveness on this album. The clean production values give Vern Rumsey's bass the muscle it needs to cut through the fog. Justin Trosper's lonely guitar leads, barely embellished with a little overdrive and occasional tremolo, floats like a cloud above Sara Lund's monster-island 7/8 time signature (in some cases- in others, beats never heard before anywhere). Vern stirs the mix with thick tree-root bass notes. the effect is startlingly original and harmonious, somehow, even in its most discordant moments.

Like your rock? I would pit the deep riffing of Below the Salt, the angry bursts of Off this Century and the volcanic groove of Scarlette against any rock noise of any stripe. They may not crank the overdrive pedal to eleven, but they don't need it. Most of their hardest jamming sounds like two plain old fenders, hooked into amps and cranked, interlocked in a battle to the bitter end.

This horror movie filmed on Monster Island is full of interesting characters, monstrous on the outside and tender on the inside. The lovelorn letter that makes up the lyrics of Scarlette are scathing, sad and beautiful all at once. The protagonist of "Summer Freeze" thought he was dead, but it turns out he's alive. A lot of lyrical moments remind me of Poe, maybe even HP Lovecraft.

Anyway, this is great album, with a lot to offer to a wide range of tastes. You'll find it especially tasty if you like your rock served up raw but with some complex flavors and structures, and have a love for old horror movies or gothic fiction. And probably even if you don't.

This is a fantastic record. While I enjoy Unwound's previous work quite a bit, I tended to find a lot of their songs similar in feel and dynamics. This is a quieter record, but crackling with intensity. each song is different, the vocals have been de-emphasized to a cold yet inviting my bloody valentine-ish drone, and the entire record is saturated with tape loops, found sounds, and other psychedelic production touches; kind of like Fugazi covering "tomorrow never knows". a dark, melodic, trippy masterpiece.

unwound's been a frequent guest in my world for years now, as regular, essential and satisfying as a six-pack in the fridge. i love 'em and the neighbors, no doubt, hate 'em. believe me, there's nothing quite as soothing as coming home after a long day at work, kicking off the one-stars and shrieking along justin and kicking the furniture while flailing on my air-guitar. but with this, their sixth long-player, everything's changed...

gone are the soft-loud-soft-LOUD dynamics, the white-knuckled thrashathons...and in their place are impossibly complex - and dare i say "reflective"? - epics. and somehow, somehow it works perfectly.

like a lot of my favorite bands these days, unwound's probably been finding it all too easy to step on the pedals and, erm, "rock out"...for some of these bands, the retreat to hushed murmurs has resulted in dull, drab, drained-out sounding albums (yo la tengo, anyone?), but for unwound, it might just have ended up creating their most accomplished and masterful effort yet.

there's some really fantastic gems on here; from the hazily unfolding drones of "one lick less" (i dare you to listen to this and not feel practically weightless, c'mon) to the achingly bruised (did i just refer to an unwound song as "achingly bruised"? yes, i just did) "demons sing love songs", olympia's finest have emerged from a three-year hibernation with something truly stunning. there's so much invention going on in these tunes, that repeated listens only make them even more intoxicating and seductive.

oh, and don't think that the tension, dynamics and (albeit sumberged) noise are completely gone -- there's plenty of it here (notably "scarlette", which sounds as close to classic unwound as it comes) to indulge in, it's just that by stretching, pushing and prodding their best elements into such brave shapes, unwound have truly taken a brave leap foward.

wholeheartedly recommended.

this is unwound at their best.
if you don't have this album then you don't have sheer perfection in your stereo.

UNWOUND's "Leaves Turn Inside You" is one of my all time favorite album sets. This was a different kind of project for UNWOUND in my opinion. In comparison to their other albums, it's a bit spacey & hypnotic. Kind of slow at times... but not `bad' slow, just different from the UNWOUND I was use to hearing. I specially enjoy the way the open room acoustics Sarah's drum set was applied with thru out a portion of this album. By the way, the drumming is superbly done. I love the stereo/chorus image they put on her kit at times. The heavy tremolo, feedback & spacey-echo on the guitar is awesome to. I wish I knew who was behind the keyboard work, I never found out. I actually love how this entire album was recorded & mastered. In many ways their music was well in prospective with the early 90's - but then again, UNWOUND proved to be creatively ahead of the curve many times over. It's amazing how many of today's modern day bands have similar qualities to the style of this band & it's even more amazing to me that UNWOUND isn't talked about more then they are. The sheer amount of music they wrote is something to be appreciated just in itself. I'm not saying they aren't recognized & appreciated. I run into people who say they at-least use to listen to them. I'm just saying that it's kind of weird to me that they weren't acknowledged more then they seemingly have been. All their albums were just fantastic, specially "Repetition" (which is my favorite UNWOUND album) & "A Single History". You could say that every album of UNWOUND's is somewhat vastly different from each other. It's hard to tell you what album to start with if you've never listen to them, as they all petuate different feelings, at-least for me that is. I guess "Leaves Turn Inside You" is a good place to start. If you really have never heard them though, I might recommend the album "A Single History" to get you started. Of-course, that could ruin how special it is to hear (for the first time) AFTER falling in love with prior albums. It was a great idea to put a compilation of all those singles onto one disk, a very special collection indeed, specially for someone who already admires their music.