AND WE’RE BACK. Emeralds – Emeralds (2009)
09.27.2009
yes, yes… i am back from a scary place where the internet is slow and the days are long known as cleveland. armed with bandwidth and a renewed sense of purpose, we can finally return to full swing. and what better way to kick things off than with another beautiful Emeralds album?
opener “overboard (off the deep end)” starts things off in regular emeralds style, but “geode” is a definite sonic left turn for their band. easily the most melodic, ’song’-like track from the band thus far, melodic synths and mark mcguire’s guitar tangle and weave in and out of one another with hypnotizing results. “diotima” is a serene, yet expansive track that could easily run longer than its 6 and a half minutes. 18 minute longform closer “passing away” shows emeralds doing what they do best, crafting massive, detailed landscapes of sound.
after hitting their peak earlier this year with the massive What Happened (currently in strong running to be album of the year), the new, more melodic direction displayed here and on the Fresh Air 7″ is interesting. it’s not quite as big of a statement as their previous 2009 full length, but Emeralds is nonetheless a gorgeous listen. at this point, i wonder if these guys are even capable of releasing something less than stellar.
( i had a lot of trouble finding album art for this. if anyone can find a suitably sized version of it, leave it in the comments)
dash n blast
09.29.2009 at 4:50 pm
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c88/omalljam/Emeralds-ST-Front.jpg
09.30.2009 at 1:22 pm
that aint the art. it should look like this, but larger: http://static.boomkat.com/images/262583/112.jpg
10.13.2009 at 12:15 pm
That is the album art. I own it on vinyl. The art you’re referring to is an insert.
10.13.2009 at 12:42 pm
[...] definitely a couple of weeks late on posting this and Brian already did an excellent write-up, but I would be remiss if I didn’t expose more people to the new Emeralds album. Emeralds [...]