Western Lands

Gravenhurst | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 18, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warp Records
• ASIN: B000TX6H2I
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,829 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Familiar Elements in New Combinations, November 6, 2007

By 

M. McNally (Ketchikan, AK, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Lands (Audio CD)

Intrigued by an unusual description of the band in the All Music Guide (which described them as something like "My Bloody Valentine meet Fairport Convention") I decided to pick this album up unheard. That description is a little misleading, the cover of Fairport's "Farewell, Farewell" and the shoe-gazerish multi-layered MBV-esque guitar work on several tracks notwithstanding. It will do as a starting point, however. A fairer summary would be to say that while individual elements seem reminiscent of British bands that have gone before -- in addition to Fairport and My Bloody Valentine I think I can hear hints of Smiths (on "Hollow Men"), House of Love (on "Trust") and even a touch of Nick Drake (on "Hourglass") -- the overall effect is quite pleasing: not so much a dozen styles thrown into a blender, as a band secure enough to wear some of its influences on its sleeve and mature enough to have worked them into a cohesive style of its own.

I'm very happy with this purchase, and if Amazon's rating system allowed half stars I'd go as high as 4 1/2.

Spare, moody, and understated in its best moments, driving and energetic at other times, "The Western Lands" has been in heavy rotation on my stereo since I brought it home -- it's a great accompaniment for a rainy autumn afternoon. I look forward to hearing more out of Gravenhurst and am happy to discover plenty of material in their back catalog that seems to justify further exploration.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Equals "Fires" in consistency of mood, April 8, 2008

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Lands (Audio CD)

I liked the previous CD, "Fires in Distant Buildings," most of all for its Kinks cover, "See My Friends," turned dirgelike and somber. This new CD also features an excellent cover, "Farewell, Farewell," which was movingly sung by Sandy Denny on "Liege & Lief" by Fairport Convention. Taking such songs from the end of the British pop 60s and thickening their textures with mood and gravity is what Nick Talbot, the main force behind this band, does well. Given his roots in his love of the "rural psychedelia" of Bristol's Flying Saucer Attack, his own move away from solo electronics into more organic sounds, integrating a richer array of instruments, accompanists, and influences, fits this record as it had "Fires."

I'd say the two records are equally appealing, if a rather reticent, internalized, and consciously self-effacing persona's what you're wanting to hear. Talbot handles the vocals and most of the instruments with assured control. This album moves about a British array of overcast, sultry, and brooding tones steadily.

Therefore, while this description may not appeal to every listener, if you're intrigued by the maturation of another wunderkind who's opening his ears and soul to earlier styles in the intelligent slightly folk, electronically enhanced, and definitely layered approach that many songwriters seem to master as they grow out of the limits of one genre, give this a listen.