Wednesday 09 December 2009
Shearwater sets sail for The Golden Archipelago.
(photo: matadorrecords.com)
Its just shy of a year since I first mentioned Shearwater on these pages, having come to appreciate the joy of last year’s Rook album a little later than most. At that time, I was lamenting a rainy winter’s day whose mood struck me as the perfect fit for Shearwater’s haunting, majestic music. Today’s winter weather forecast appears to be bright and sunny, with little wind to rustle the remaining leaves on the trees, which oddly fits the mood of Shearwater’s latest, “Castaways”, from their forthcoming The Golden Archipelago.
It’s the third LP in a triptych about human impact on the environment and natural world that features music as vast and expansive as its subject matter. This time out, singer/songwriter Jonathan Meiburg focuses his attention to life on islands: solitary, succulent, sacred and scarce. Upon going back and listening to the triptych’s previous parts (the aforementioned Rook and 2006′s Palo Santo), it’s amazing to hear how perfectly Meiburg and his band have managed to marry music and message. I hasten to call this “concept rock” because I think that diminishes the artistry at work here. Concept makes it sound contrived, or worse, forced; “Castaways” is an effortlessly beautiful piece, led by throbbing percussion and Meiburg’s emotive, heartfelt vocals. I can’t help but go back and listen to it over and over, each time feeling like I’m coasting higher and higher on a tropical breeze over an undisturbed sea.
As a relatively new convert to Shearwater, I’m very, very excited to hear The Golden Archipelago in full, and have circled it’s February 23rd release date (I know! Another two months!) on my calendar already. Matador Records has graciously made “Castaways” available in a beautiful sounding 192k mp3, an even more pristine 256k mp3, and in a FLAC version that includes single artwork and dossier pages (the 256k version includes artwork and dossier, too).
MP3: Shearwater “Castaways”
Myspace: Shearwater
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
