Twenty-Five years into The Album Leaf, Jimmy LaValle reveals his darkest work to date. And when I say dark, I mean really, really dark. It is a record of few words (like most Album Leaf albums), but it says a lot. This collection of songs will pull you in, your senses will be heightened by the volume and grandeur, close your eyes, and it will consume you.
Opening with ‘Prologue,’ Lavalle welcomes us back into the Album Leaf fold instantly. A piano/synth-led song, reminiscent of something you’d hear on Mogwai’s Rave Tapes, the track builds and creeps its way to the three-minute mark, where it takes off. No sooner has it taken flight it descends and crashes.
‘Dust Collects’ follows the theme of building and crashing; tonally, it is very similar to ‘Prologue’; there’s a strong sense of travelling in these songs, travelling through space perhaps? Certainly, with an unknown destination. Again there’s a piano hook that is simple yet truly effective. The synths move seductively; the pace is steady, and you’re drawn in.
Being one of only two songs on the record that feature vocals, ‘Afterglow’ is perfectly balanced and timed. It is a song about breaking up, “Why did we grow far apart like dominoes”, about loneliness and restlessness. Guest vocalist Kimbra sings beautifully; the song has a strong Massive Attack, Everything But The Girl feel.
‘Breathe’ allows you to do just that; if there’s ever a genre called ‘Gothic Church’, then this song would lead the charge, hauntingly brilliant. The track should be on everyone’s relaxing playlist for six minutes of meditation. Lavalle said of this record that he spent every day of the pandemic creating and building songs people could escape in, which has undoubtedly come to fruition.
‘Cycles’ and ‘Give In’ both float along with a real positive intensity to them. Ambient in waves and with Synths that many artists crave to create, the songs have real depth and beauty, the colours and shapes seemingly morphing slowly. As far as instrumental songs go, these are incredibly solid.
Bat For Lashes, aka Natasha Khan, refers to ‘Near’, the song she wonderfully appears on, as a “sort of ambient fairy-tale” It is a truly stunning piece of work, dreamlike and natural. Working organically, the track was built from a day’s recording where Khan would lay down her vocals. LaValle then went and made the wall of sound around said vocals. The song is about holding those you love close to you, even in the darkest of times, the dark of the woods.
Seven years after the last record, Jimmy LaValle has stayed true to his love of analogue synthesizers and built a world around them. Whilst the future might be falling, as long as we have The Album Leaf around to guide us, there is always a chance that the future will eventually rise. Should you need to escape from the world, to hide and get lost entirely in sounds and scope, this album is for you.
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