One Track Mind

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[ download ]

Where have New York’s As Tall As Lions been hiding? They are set to release their third album, You Can’t Take It With You, on August 18th, but I would be lying if I said I had ever heard of them before. (Better late than never, right?) Apparently they’ve been flying under the radar for quite a few years, having first gotten together when members were still in high school. The resultant cohesiveness, the kind of musical coming of age that happens when bandmates mature together as a unit on their respective instruments, is readily evident on “Circles.”

The lead track from their new release has an excursive, wandering quality, the song structure constantly obscured by an ever shifting bit of scenery. Like backdrops and stage props being slid into and off of view in a theatrical production, curtains of rhythm and tempo rise and fall before the listener. Though the terrain is always changing, “Circles” never feels lacking in direction or coherence. The highs here spiral upward in dizzying fashion, recalling the work of British acts like Doves or Elbow. Elsewhere, the spacious textures bring to mind the feathery yet sturdy dynamics of The Daysleepers or the poise and composure of Snow Patrol (before they totally sucked).