Brazos - Saltwater PROMO (2013) [Indie Rock]

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Brazos - Saltwater


Label.........................: Dead Oceans
Genre.........................: Indie
StoreDate.....................: May-28-2013
Source........................: CDDA
Grabber.......................: Exact Audio Copy (Secure Mode)
Encoding Scheme...............: Lame 3.98.4 V0 VBR Joint-Stereo
Size..........................: 70.83 MB
Total Playing Time............: 39:18

Release Notes:

When Martin Crane returned from touring his debut full-length as Brazos,
2009's Phosphorescent Blues, he came down with a serious case of
post-vacation doldrums. After working at a phone bank and spending a
little too much time in Austin dive bars, Crane decided to lift himself
out of his rut by moving to New York. There, he signed to independent
label Dead Oceans and enlisted some Brooklyn-based musicians to record
his second record, Saltwater. Informed by the "transcendent groove
music" of artists like Can and Fela Kuti, and the contemporary indie
rock canon, Saltwater strives to be a buoyant return to form for Crane
even as it strays from his original vision.

Before and for a while after Brazos came to be, Crane used to perform
with other local artists at a bi-weekly acoustic happy hour at Austin's
Beerland. In an early video of one such get-together, a bearded, at ease
Crane strums his acoustic guitar and crows heartily along with everyone
else on stage, playing bar-room country with the same charmingly
informal affect that made it onto his first EPs under the Brazos
moniker. That quality was all but lost on Phosphorescent Blues, which
came a few years later. For that record, Crane adopted a backing band
and reinvented himself as a troubadour of sorts, citing an Adrienne Rich
poem as the album's inspiration, and supplementing-- or more often than
not, replacing-- his scruffy, clattering arrangements with the
sophisticated rhythms of jazz and bossa nova.

Saltwater sees that poem and raises it one Moby Dick, Crane's muse this
time around. To flesh out such an ambitious vision, the
singer-songwriter enlisted Empress Of's bassist Spencer Zahn and drummer
Ian Chang, who plays with People Get Ready and Matthew Dear. The new
members complement Crane's lyrics, which tend to be heavy on scenes,
metaphors, and literary references, with subtle instrumental touches
that breathe life into them. On the magnificent "Charm", Zahn teases out
the lower ranges of a pulsing guitar riff similar to the one buried in
labelmate Phosphorescent's "Song for Zula" as Chang clicks his sticks
with the anticipation of fall's first brittle wind. They adeptly change
tacks for the samba-indebted title track, which sees Crane using Ishmael
as a character to tell the story of a friend's death. Despite lyrics
about night terrors and the cult Japanese film Rashomon, Brazos keep
things light with twittering piano notes, a woodblock, and surging
choruses.

Brazos' pop-icalia is well-timed for the onset of summer, but it comes
at the expense of the homegrown grit that made Brazos' early recordings
so appealing, and it doesn't always go down smooth. "Valencia" is a
cutesy vignette of another one of those quirky girls, hinging on stilted
conversation ("Oh, how you look so small from most any eye!") that not
even that woodblock can save. The subsequent "Deeper Feelings" sounds
like a watery outtake from Local Natives' Hummingbird, sunk in strangely
squelching background synths and moony guitar lines. By the end,
Saltwater winds up with impeccably tuned harmonies, lovely melodies, and
literally the exact same guitar chords as the National's "Runaway"
opening album closer "Long Shot".

At least on Phosphorescent Blues, there were hints of Crane's earlier
work in the percussive guitar playing and a voice so threadbare you
could hear the grain of it. Now there is little, if anything, left of
the Martin Crane that indulged in spontaneous blues licks and wasn't
afraid to conclude his bedroom recordings with rambling vocal loops that
sound like a drinking song, or like he was just drunk. And that seems to
be the way he intended it. Saltwater is a pretty record and the songs
are clearly heavy with personal significance, but it was almost better
when they were a little rough around the edges.

--6.3/10 Pitchfork


Tracklisting

01. Always On                                                      3:34
02. Charm                                                          3:43
03. How The Ranks Was Won                                          4:38
04. One Note Pillow                                                4:16
05. Valencia                                                       4:40
06. Deeper Feelings                                                3:58
07. Irene                                                          5:39     
08. Saltwater                                                      5:42
09. Long Shot                                                      3:08


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