Why didn’t anyone notice? Ravens & Chimes
just re-released their second album “Holiday Life” as a UK vinyl
edition packed with some exclusive remixes. The latest record by this New
Yorker indie-pop band might be over about a year old, but still it is totally
worth being introduced and heard of.
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The record opens with “Division St” and shows right from the
start its high quality. We get an intelligent arrangement of piano and acoustic
guitars added to enjoyably gentle singing. By the first few chords we already
know how pleasant this indie trip might become in the course of this “Holiday
Life”.
But this album is not entirely quiet, at all.
No, “Clarissa Explains” opens with a catchy drum beat and develops into a born-and-bred
indie rock track. To support the piano there even are edgy guitar riffs and a
bass line making this song a real must hear in an otherwise rather quiet
collection of indie balladry.
A highlight is definitively “Night”. Here we
get smooth acoustic rhythms underlined by a melodic piano tune and a subtle
touch of flute. Completed with a chorus sung with two voices, this song is
perfect for a nightly road-trip on a lonely motorway.
“In Rooms” reminds with its additional choirs
and sort of awkward background music in the stanzas of proms from 50s-movies.
It is no wonder that the lyrics of this song are mainly about dancing and being
“forever green”. But at the same time it is charmingly inviting and might
convince one or another to shake a leg himself.
The closer “Carousel” is once again an indie
rock song in perfection. We get deep stanzas flowing into a bridge of acoustic
arrangements and a catchy chorus, meaningful lyrics and on top enchanting
combinations of strings and piano tunes which come to an end way too soon. This
is a highlight hidden at the very end of a felicitous album. Thank God, it was
not wasted on the soundtrack for The
Twilight Saga: Eclipse, as originally intended, so you can listen to it
without seeing werewolves and shiny vampires in your head. That would have been
a shame.
Every single track on “Holiday Life” would fit
perfectly on the soundtrack of a beautiful little independent movie. Not only
because the melodies are so carefully composed or the different instruments are
complementing each other in a delicate way, but the lyrics seem to speak wisely
of life and death and everything in between. Ravens & Chimes created a
stunning album full of inspiring memories which place themselves into the
listener’s ear right after the first few seconds of each song.
Ravens & Chimes - Holiday Life
Out of 10: 9/10
Written by Sarah Beicht
Listen / [SOUNDCLOUD]