Coming Out Of The Fog

Now that I have reverted back to primal ways of listening to music (vinyl through headphones) it is giving me an opportunity to really listen to the records. It is also making me much more picky with what I purchase. I have subscribed to eMusic for a long time. Since I have converted to vinyl as my primary mechanism I have seriously downgraded my digital commitment. Instead of the shotgun approach of getting new music I am now doing a lot more reading and researching and listening online before making an order. There is a local record shop but they don't have a selection of new stuff really. It's primary a vehicle for selling off and buying old stuff. Cool, but I am most interested in getting new records (though I have bought a nice pile of old stuff).

One of the bands that have made it through this new found prudence is Baltimore's Arbouretum and their latest record Coming Out Of The Fog.  It is 8 tracks of Crazy Horse-esque guitar anthems and mellower country-ish jams, country in this sense of Americana. Guitarist and vocalist Dave Heumann is the main song writer. His voice stays in the lower registers which occasionally climbs up the ladder. The musicianship is great; lots of great guitar work that remains the focus but doesn't get in the way. The chords are fuzzed out for the chunkier songs, giving it a nice full Neil Young kind of vibe. A few of my band's songs have the same kind of vibe, but these are better by far. The lyrics are imagery heavy, sort of high school-ish in spots but very good in others. Like: "Everyone says/It'll come to an end/Oh, the oceans don't sing/Of impossible things."

Key tracks include the Soundgarden churn of "The Promise" and it's story of ocean voyages giving way to the elegant piano and guitar  and slide of "Oceans Don't Sing," the very 90s grunge of "All At Once, The Turning Weather." The one misfire is the album closing title track; it seems like a throwaway, not really fitting in with the rest of the record.

I'd recommend it to Neil Young fans and fans of sludgy guitar work that doesn't get to the sharp point of metal.

Here's "The Promise:"