Review of Akron/Family

The family business

I picked up Akron/Family on a whim whilst searching around for anything remotely 'folky and weird'. That was about a year ago now, and I remember the album being an instant hit. I had it on repeat a fair few times back then and regarded it as a solid album. It's only recently that I've given it more patience though and listened to it more intently, rather than relegating it to a background accompaniment.

The album begins as an incredibly serene and laid back piece of music and maintains the theme throughout. The opening tracks amble along at a very relaxed pace and each of the first four songs would make an excellent ambient soundtrack on their own, even without the vocals. The vocals themselves are something that I guess you either love or hate. At times they are noticeably whiny or too high pitched, other times they are completely essential and emotional, but overall they don't grate on me at all. I've heard some other Akron/Family songs and this album seems a lot less spontaneous and energetic than some later recordings, but that's not necessarily a bad thing!

The band members are multi-instrumentalists, so expect a mixture of sounds ranging from gently strummed guitars to 80s sounding keyboards and swirling electro noise. I do have a favourite song on the album - Running, Returning, which just stuck out as much more 'wholesome' and upbeat than the rest of the album, but I feel bad about picking out a single track because the entire record is a listening experience in itself. I think it's fair to say that Akron/Family has grown on me over time as well, even though I appreciated it from the very beginning.

In fact, as I sit here in bed at 4:30am, basking in the glare of my laptop screen, I think I've just fallen in love with the album all over again.

8/10

Added by The Flagship 4 years ago
on 1 January 2009 22:36

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