Halloween, Alaska [ENHANCED]

Alaska Halloween

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 26, 2005)
• Original Release Date: April 26, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: East Side Digital
• ASIN: B0008G2IGK
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #132,619 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. You're It

2. All the Arms Around You

3. Des Moines

4. Call It Clear

5. Halloween

6. Four Corners

7. State Trooper

8. Telling Me

9. All the Arms Around You [Vic 20 Remix][*]

10. Telling Me [Acoustic Demo][*]

11. Warning Track [Varsity Mix][*]

12. [Web Links] [DeSktops]

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This quartet came together from a handful of other bands in the Minneapolis area. Their eponymous debut was locally released in 2003, but continued and growing college radio play, combined with having a couple of the tracks ("All the Arms Around you" and "Des Moines") featured on the popular TV show The O.C., has brought forth this new, enhanced edition. The ethereal bearing of the eight songs reveal layers of textures and arrangement details, as the slowly paced rhythms expand to their appropriate lengths for more than an hour of music. James Diers' vocals have a lilting sonority that allows the melodies to float in and out of the the surrounding accompaniment, sometimes for the foreground lyrical components, other times as another color in their gorgeous tapestry. --David Greenberger

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Searching for a Late Summer Thunderstorm, May 13, 2005

By	Mindy Allen "minderella" (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars buried treasure (best experienced with headphones)..., March 24, 2006

By	M. Lohrke "spitcake.blogspot.com" (Provo, UT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, March 7, 2006

By	C. Mackey (Somerville, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.