I’m a well-documented softie. I like hugs. I cry at movies.
So the particularly charming and ethereal music that two guys from Chicago who call their band Whitney falls right into my wheelhouse. I was familiar with their first album, mostly due to singles played on the spectacular satellite radio station, Sirius XMU, but nothing grabbed me enough to make me seek out more.
All that changed when I heard “Giving Up,” the lead off track and first single of this incredible little album. It’s a song that wastes no time in trying to elicit the most amount of emotional weight the band’s various tools can muster. There’s the soft tapping on the drums. A melancholy horn. And lead singer’s, Julien Ehrlich, stunning falsetto.
Second song (and second single) is just as good. “Used To Be Lonely” sounds like a peak-Wilco title and has one of the best instrumental breakdowns on the album late in the song. Though the lyrics of this song talk about loneliness in the past (note: “Used To Be..), there’s no mistaking the sad patina over the song and the album has a whole.
Is the whole album a downer? Definitely not. There’s hopefulness and love, lots of love, in the lyrics. And the music has a kind of breezy late summer\fall feeling. Close your eyes and you can see the leaves falling off the trees. It’s a short album clocking it just about 30 minutes and perfect for a cooling walk around the neighborhood.
Another early highlight is “Valleys (My Love).” The combination of the bright musical elements with the longing-tinged lyrics makes for a memorable combination.
About halfway through the album is a surprise instrumental. The predominance of a horn, played by guitarist Max Kakacek (I think!), is featured heavily on this album and one of the reasons I feel drawn to it. I’ve always loved indie bands that use uncommon instruments in the genre (see: Broken Social Scene).
The title track, “Forever Turned Around”, comes at the end of the album and it feels like the proper emotional comedown. After a few songs that could almost be considered upbeat late in the record, the title track ratchets up the melancholy as Julien sings “Spent a long cold winter thinking about \ The way forever turned around.” Again, the individual elements feel almost sparse, a crooning horn, violins in the background, and just a handful of lyrics, but the combined weight of it, and the preceding album, leave a lasting, powerful, impression.
Elad Haber 