Customer Reviews

One Day I'll Be on Time

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw The Album Leaf in March supporting Sigur Ros at the Cleveland, OH show. Of course, Sigur Ros blew me away, but The Album Leaf suprised me so. I had heard of them, but hadn't heard the band, and the second the tape loops kicked in, i felt so alive. It was such a moving display of pure human emotion. I later bought "One Day I'll Be On Time," and i am still floored. Of course, they are best seen live, but this album will do for me anyday. The orchestration is pure bliss. The music speaks for itself, and I feel that I personally connect with each and every song on this disc. I feel such a wide array of emotions, everything from first loves to reliving my childhood memories to feeling sorry for the kid sitting alone at lunch in grade school to falling in love for the first time. There are only a handful of albums that make me feel infinite, and I truly believe that in time this may be one of the classics in my collection. I really hope that The Album Leaf will tour with Múm someday, as I feel it would be the perfect insturmental/organic music show. Thank you for making me feel infinite. Thank you for making me feel happy to be alive.

I'm a fan of a lot of different kinds of music (heck, my three favourite bands are the Get Up Kids, Phish, and Bjork.) I ordered this album along with Death Cab For Cutie's "We Have The Facts and We're Voting Yes" and the Pixies "Surfer Rosa." Both of them were good, but when I put this disc in, I was pretty much just blown away. The Album Leaf have an really unique sound, combining acoustic guitar and bass lines with all kinds of fun electronical instruments. All the songs on here are good, but my favorites are "Gust of...", "Wet The Day", "The Audio Pool", and "Asleep." Wet The Day is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. To think that just one guy wrote and recorded 90% of this album is really cool. If you're a fan of Her Space Holiday, Bjork, Radiohead, Death Cab For Cutie, Sigur Ros, Portishead, Garbage, or pretty much ANYTHING I'd recommend this CD!!!

I hardly know how to describe this album in a way anyone else would understand, except maybe if you know anything about the idea of the Music of the Spheres. Then I could say that I think the Album Leaf has created that music on earth. It's music to listen to when you're floating in space. If you've never floated in space, you might not recognize it, might not get it, might not love it. But if you have, this album will be like going home. And

sporting jimmy lavalle of tristeza, the album leaf makes a damn good record...avoiding some of the cheesyness that plagues tristeza. great guitar lines, with appropriate drums to drive the music. if you dig this, check out mercury program.

Caught them at the Sigur Ros show in Seattle. A really GREAT band with beautiful music, but the recoding seems a little flat by comparison. A little under produced. Buy the album, or better yet, catch them live!!

This somewhat underrated, underrecognized album by The Album Leaf is a work of quiet beauty that under the right circumstances has the propensity to instill calm and wonderful imagery in the mind of the listener. Although flawed in parts (the album comes off as slightly less polished than it might have been) One Day I'll Be On Time is an excellent album for wistful reflection and relaxation. Best listened to in darkness.

Jimmy LaValle is a diverse musician. Coming from such San Diego hardcore acts as Swing Kids, The Locust, and Gogogo Airheart, LaValle has branched out and showed his calmer side with Tristeza and The Album Leaf. On this album, LaVelle has put together more complex, melodic tracks layered over calm drumbeats. With continued progression in his swirling, dreamy sound, The Album Leaf is yet another striking example of LaVelle's abilities as an artful musician. Beautiful.

I happen to catch The Album Leaf open for Sigur Ros recently, and was blown away by what I heard. I bought the CD on the spot.

The album is quite good. Running at 60 min., there is a lot of pick and choose. The key track is "The Audio Pool", a really superb interplay between Jimmy Lavalle's heyboards and the drums supporting his vision.

The 35 min. opening act I saw was full of energy I do not always detect on the album. The guitar noodlings on, for example, "Hang Over" I can do without. The album is strongest when there is a real "band" feel to it, even though Jimmy pretty much recorded this by himself.

Bottom line: this is a good album, but if you have a chance to catch Album Leaf live, go see them!

The Album Leaf...who needs a pamphlet of Iceland when you have this album. I was bartending at the time that I was given this disc by two great regulars and friends, after countless evenings of making their Georgetown martinis (3/4 Greygoose orange & 1/4 Cointreu, twist or wedge of orange, shaken to skate) and discussing how music is more of a score to our lives rather than just a fleeting interest day by day. So they brought this album for me on their next visit and began to explain the details of Jimmy Lavalle and his friendship with Sigur Ros and Amina, his move from the states to his new found inspiration... Iceland after his enveloping tour and nationwide acceptance. Word.

I could name off various groups that may sound similar or be lumped together in magazine reviews. However, I feel that artists such as this deserve their own independant recognition. The greatest attribute of minimalist, math rock, down tempo, ambient whatever name you prefer is that it's for you. Your thoughts become the lyrics to these tracks. Now there's no doubt for all of us that songs are our own distinct mental bookmarks of a personal time and place, good or bad. This album gives the ability to better recognize that, sometimes even help in regards to your penmanship and starting a new chapter. So if you share a similar perspective to mine, this album is essential and no 30 second sample will give it the justice it deserves. Cheers to my boys for this one, spot on.

After having heard his other production under The Album Leaf ("In a Safe Place") and being exposed to his other band, Tristeza recently, I conclude this is Jimmy Lavalle's best work. Ambient, without tripping into New Age, with beautiful instrumentation that invites the mind to wander and relax, "One Day I'll Be on Time" is one of the most fulfilling albums you will run into. Even after four years of its release in 2001, its sonic powers remain intact.