Customer Reviews

Weathervanes [Vinyl]

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really love this album.

However, I may really love this album for all the wrong reasons. I first heard of Freelance Whales on NPR (which, surprisingly, is where I find a lot of the music I listen to these days). The first thing I did after hearing about them in the car that fateful Saturday morning was to jump onto the web and download their album.

What they've written and produced is full of movement, emotion, depth and complexity. I can bob my head with many of the songs on the album. The ones I can't head bob to are great for slow dancing with my wife in my home. All of them are great for driving in the car. There's not a song on this playlist that I don't dig - and it's worth listening straight through without shuffling. To say the least, this album makes me feel really good. If I were to give it a visual, it would be like thousands of golden lightning bugs lighting the dark around me wherever I'm walking (I don't mean to say that these guys are lighting the path of my life, but that they really provide a lot of warmth to what can sometimes be cold and ordinary). It makes me think a lot of friendship / companionship.

All of this is great. All of this is enough to run out and buy this album right now (or... run in and download it).

But the reasons I love this... my wrong reasons... are as follows:
I feel like this album is what you would get if you mixed the vocals of The Postal Service with a dash of Fleet Foxes and laid them over the complexity of Sufjan Stevens' rhythm and composition. These guys mix electronic instruments with acoustics (from what seems to sound like banjos at times, guitars at others) and know how to effectively go a capella before launching into another electronic assault on your senses.

Why wouldn't I love this this album?

I love this album. Catchy hooks, beautiful harmonies, quirky lyrics and a really sweet spirit. There is a loose theme - many of the songs revolve around a shared house and the people in it - you get the feeling of a bunch of artists sharing a cool old house in the country.

As far as style, I'd call it folk-pop-electronic. They are somewhere in the same musical neighborhood as Passion Pit, Phoenix, The Bird and The Bee, and maybe Imogen Heap (if that is a neighborhood); but with the acoustic instruments and vocal harmonies, they also remind me of Crosby, Stills and Nash and Monsters of Folk. All that notwithstanding - this band really has its own sound and the comparisons only tell part of the story.

Listening to Weathervanes always makes me happy. I put it on while I'm making the kids' lunches in the morning, or when we're setting out on a trip in the car. It's very rich in feeling. I haven't heard music like this in a long time.

Weathervanes is that kind of rare album that's much more than just good pop music or a promising debut. It's quite special. It might be destined to be a classic, like the first CSN album (the one with Wooden Ships).

utterly original with hints of appleseed cast, sufjan stevens, and annuals ... cant stop listening to this record since i got it last week. catchy, highs and lows, banjos, synth, sweeping lyrics. perfect.

A great album, one worth listening over and over again! There are some really well written songs!!

this album is fantastic. totally original, but if I had to make a comparison it would be the little ones meets postal service meets sufjan stevens. wonderful.

Always wanted to be a bigger fan of the indie folk sound and Sufjan did a good job satisfying on that front. Freelance Whales took it to a different place though with the inclusion of electro sounds. I definitely see this being an album I put on repeat for a long while. Can't wait for more stuff from them.

I was first attracted by the dynamics of their work, and the fact that the instrumentation and arrangements were definitely unique and unpolished, yet still somehow ear-friendly. The songs are not predictable and each has its own little world of association that you think comes from the fact these musicians are just doing their own thing. But sometimes, I hate to say, I can hear a little too much of Death Cab for Cutie influences. It's the vocals and arrangements which are obviously tied to that school of indie rock ala TV show licensing, but overall, it's still a really good and listenable album. I look forward to the band coming into its own a little bit more - and taking more risks. But the musicianship is stellar and you have to give it to these kids for going the extra mile. The choruses are soothing and rhythms are varied, and lyrics are definitely of the young college student demographic, but I'd buy their next album too if it branches off a bit from the referential stuff of their obvious influences.

This cd is excellent from start to finish. The songs are very unique with plenty on instruments that you don't always hear in alternative music. I especially love song number 3 (Location)!

I've been waiting for a band like Freelance Whales. They take the best of the new Americana sounds--a touch of banjo, vocal harmonies--and the best of the shoe-gazer melancholy, and manage to blend it all together just right with some really smart lyrics. The result, as others have described very well here, is richly layered. Full of harmony and surprises.

This album is varied, fun, and every song is interesting. The melodies will keep you boppin' along in an easygoing fashion. Hannah and Generator are my favorites, each with their own personality. The band is a lot of fun to see live -- very down to earth, nice people, making good music. Highly recommend!