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- Released: January 2008
- Rating: 8/10
- Vote and comment on this album:
Boston eight-piece make their debut. Its nice too.
A super collection of country-tinged off-radar pop, 12 Tales incorporatesinfluences such as classical (Mozart/Beethoven) sweeping string arrangementsto the mid-60s Lennon and Wilson (Beach Boys) palate, through to the indiescene of say Belle And Sebastian and Camera Obscura. Thrown into the mix,theres Folk and Bluegrass which all sit neatly next to each other, some featconsidering the stylistic direction it tends to wander.
Because theyve all studied music, they bring together differing influences.Young Republic are college students who been gathering a considerable live fanbase,selling music on CDRs at gigs, with many of those finally put together here. Thealbums been recorded in all manner of places like an old church, bedrooms andclassrooms, but youd never think so as the resulting product is excellent.
Just about every track is gorgeous, even the rockier ones have a warmth to themlike opener Girl In A Tree, and Paper Ships. Their Bluegrass likingshines through on the fiddle-lead Excuses To See Young accompanied by somesweet girlie backups, segued by the country shuffle of Girl From The CountryStates, where again, the fiddle boosts the country musical colours, andsplashes of brass that make a significant impact.
Young Republic arent reliant on multiple instrumentation to make animpression however, as the stripped back Real Love drifts nicely with vocaland acoustic guitar, until he arrival of flute and violin, giving the balladsome wonderful textures. They round-off with a really gorgeous Country/Bluegrassswinger: piano, fiddle, drum shuffles, brass all competing for their place.
File under: New slant on Americana. Check it out.
Weblinks:theyoungrepublic.net /endoftheroadrecords.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Girl In A Tree
2. Modern Plays
3. Excuses To See You
4. Girl From The Northern States
5. Everybody Look Better In Black And White
6. Shes Not Waiting Here This Time
7. She Comes And Goes
8. Real Love (at the end)
9. Paper Ships
10. When I See Your Eyes I Swear To God That Worlds Collide
11. Blue Skies
12. Goodbye Town
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.