Artist: The Album Leaf
Release: Into The Blue Again
Label: SubPop
Rating: +2.5
www.thealbumleaf.com / www.myspace.com/thealbumleaf

The Album Leaf

Today I’ll be reviewing the latest release from The Album Leaf (Jimmy LaValle) “Into the Blue Again”, his 3rd full length (SubPop). If anyone is qualified to make this review, I would have to say it’s myself. Being an adamant fan of The Album Leaf for many years now and owning every possible release, I’d like to say I know the range of Jimmy’s talents, where he’s been, and what he’s capable of. I’ll be honest, this is going to be closely scrutinized review as my faith has been questioned in regards to The Album Leaf in these past few months of anticipation of the release.

Admittedly, from the few tracks that were pre-released on MySpace I had the absolute lowest expectations from this release, less the track “Red Eye” which sounds stunning. Before my listen, I was affraid he had blown it, but let’s see how he faired.

Track by Track Analysis

The following is a track by track analysis as I first listened to the album in order.

01 The Light: +3
The opener is an excellent glimpse of hope for the album, coming in with a delightful arpeggiated synth followed by the classic rhodes, but seeming much warmer than the usual. This followed by a swelling string section which compliments perfectly. At this point, I’m actually excited to see where we’re going, but alas, 9 more tracks to possibly ruin it.

02 Always For You: -2
Here we have one of the pre-release tracks from MySpace, and I’ll be honest, it’s slightly annoying to me. A straight beat followed with a whiney synth and sub-par monotonous vocals. I know he’s not a big singer, but still. The second verse brings in a guitar line and some decent programmed drums, but it still lacks. The track is basically the same thing over and over with no reprieve and leaves you feeling empty and sad with the same whiney synth that greeted you. My least favorite song by far.

03 Shine: 0
First off, what a fabulous, huge drum sound, wow, loving it. The downside? It reminds me of “Thule” from the last record. I’m probably just being too anal… This is a pretty classic Album Leaf track with a nice repeating rhodes lead followed by more swelling strings, the chorus picks up nicely as well and seems to give the track somewhere to go but honestly stays in the same grooves and gets boring after the 128th bar. Not too shabby though, feels like “In A Safe Place”.

04 Writings On The Wall: -1
This is another track pre-released on MySpace again, we have an all too similar beginning as “Shine”. I would have kept these songs spread out as the drums as too similar. Sadly this is followed by more monotonous vocals and weak melodies. Again we’re sort of stuck in a rut and hearing the same things over and over, the track is however laced with some nice string/synth parts. One thing I begin to notice is lack of amazing programming that I’ve come to associate with The Album Leaf’s sound. It’s a good song but the vocals just kill it for me.

05 Red Eye: +4
Thank god for this track as it’s more of what I would expect. Simply gorgeous rhodes with delay doubled with a synth and intricate drum programming laced with synth bass, that’s what I’m talking about! Layer upon layer of rhodes start to make their way in only making it more wholesome as piano tinkerings and more drum programming continue to sift in making a well thought out track . Nearing the end of the track it breaks down the dynamics only to bring in a great string section, then picks itself back up again with more layering and a ’spooky’ synth. Excellent work.

06 See In You: +2
A track I haven’t heard of a glimpse of until now starts out great with a lot of smooth of synth and rhodes followed by the classic drum programming, props. Building quite nicely with great chord changes and the addition of a guitar, it’s actually starting to sound more like the Leaf that I know and love although in a new different way. Could this be leading to a half and half album?

07 Into The Sea: +4
Starting off with some staccato synth overlaid with some rhodes I wonder where it’s going… A few minutes in and wow, it hits you like a ton of bricks. An exploding orchestration of live drums, electro drums and insanely arranged strings burst out at you with such hope. The beat is finally how it should be, back and forth, up and down, in and out, marvelous hi-hat work and programming, I’m really liking this track. Far more epic than anything I’ve heard from the Leaf before, amazingly well done good sir.

08 Wherever I Go: +1
Nice transition from the last song with a hot beat to boot! I noticed there are vocals coming in and brace for it… not as bad, but still not liking it, to me it detracts from the beauty of the track. Jimmy is an outstanding arranger and musician, I have never know him for his vocal skills. I’m sure after all the years of instrumental tracks, he’s heard enough people say, “that would sound great with lyrics!” and finally cracked. We heard small tales of this off of “In A Safe Place” with guest vocalist from The Black Heart Procession and Sigur Ros. Honestly, I’d rather he had a few guest vocalists here and there instead of trying to do it himself.

09 Wishful Thinking: +2.5
Here we have an acoustic-like track with piano, guitar, strings and glock. This has to be the most unexpected track to me, but it’s so beautiful I can’t fault. If Jonsi sang over this… holy shit, it would actually be one of the best songs I’ve heard in my entire life. Choose them wisely Jimmy. The piano at times seems too clean, get a junker piano not a grand, breathe some life into that recording with a dirty soul of a piano.

10 Broken Arrow: +3
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s just John Travolta and Christian Slater fighting on a train carrying a nuke towards Denver! Sorry… So here we are, the final track on the album. Starting off beautifully and epic-like, I am excited to see how the album will close, thankfully it won’t be tainted by vocals. Wonderful synths and programming are laced nicely among rhodes and strings. An excellent closer in my mind, very nice indeed.

* Note: These are individual ratings, they do not have anything to do with the final rating.

Overall Thoughts

Seeing how far LaValle has come in the recent years, I think it’s a well-played album that really shows he’s content with where he’s at in life, and knows he’s got plenty ahead of him. New albums are always to be judged good and bad, but I don’t think I can harp on him too much for this one, the man spent over 18 months straight touring for christ sakes. I think I just built up such enormous expectations within myself and thought he would really come through on his followup release in a big way.

Really, my only great disappointment with this album is the vocals and pseudo monotony on some tracks. I believe sticking with guest vocalist would greatly improve the future (ala Jonsi on “Over The Pond”). Listening back now, the vocals for “In A Safe Place” are quite nice in contrast to the new tracks which appear quite flat and lacking any sort of range at all melodically.

Aside from that, the first half of the album lacks for me but is made up very well in the latter and seems to go back and stick somewhat to the roots of where he began. “Into The Sea” is an amazing track of goodness that comes almost out of left field when sequentially listening to the album. It’s epicness and feeling really make it possibly the best track on the album and something really unexpected but loved.

When compared to “In A Safe Place” I’m not really sure how to feel about it… the first half taints me but the second half exudes such sincerity and feeling that I haven’t felt from the Leaf since the early days. I have enormous respect for Jimmy and wish him nothing but great success with this album.

Artwork/Packaging +4

First off, the album artwork/packaging, it’s a solid +4 for me. Simply brilliant color scheme throughout, wrapped in a 6 panel digipack and intricate insert. The artwork and photography are seriously top notch in my book, and that’s really saying something. Kudos to to Andy Ward (Paintings), Jason Sherry (Photography) and Dusty Summers (Design), you did an amazing job capturing the essence of the Leaf. The only things I don’t like are the embossing on the nails, it seems as though it could have done without it and saved a good amount of money…and then there’s my biggest gripe, the fact that the insert is glued in, -1 on that.

Happy Listening,
Fezzik