Folk
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the folk music genre.
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Comus – “Song to Comus: The Complete Collection”
First Utterance is an essential album, and the remastering of it on Song to Comus: The Complete Collection is very tasteful and enough for me to consider it an improvement over the original (apparently the first CD issues of First Utterance had terrible sound quality, so there’s another reason to get this set). There are… (read more)
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Comus – “To Keep From Crying”
First Utterance is one of my favorite albums of all time. I went into To Keep From Crying expecting it to be completely generic southern pop garbage; totally disposable. It uh, wasn’t. I think? As far as I know. I don’t go out of my way to listen to a lot of (I guess) early… (read more)
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Current 93 – “All the Pretty Little Horses”
Ugh, the sampled children voices on All the Pretty Little Horses are terrible. Who wants to hear little kids yapping at them in real life? Who wants to hear that in their music? Why does Nick Cave randomly show up near the end of the album? Completely takes you out of the album because David… (read more)
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Grizzly Bear – “Shields”
No Grizzly Bear album is well-rounded, but Shields comes closest. For the first time, its sonic peaks are worth traversing an album for, especially since they’re tactfully spread out. (read more)
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Fairport Convention – “Liege & Lief”
A great British folk rock album, but that sort of thing often isn’t for me. After listening to a lot of this stuff you get a bit tired of the same medieval vocabulary and woodwind instruments. They take you to a certain time and place, which is great, but the more you visit a place… (read more)
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Nick Drake – “Five Leaves Left”
Five Leaves Left is currently my favorite album by Nick Drake, only in competition with Bryter Layter for his best (not like there’s much to compete with). All the strings in this album accentuate the music perfectly. The piano often may as well not be there, but it doesn’t bother much. Also, I’m pretty sure… (read more)
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Nick Drake – “Bryter Layter”
Yes, Bryter Layter is overproduced. The horns often eclipse and cover the delicate fine cracks of Nick Drake‘s songs which are his strongest facet and appeal. But they don’t completely cover the great songs underneath, and Bryter Layter at it’s core is still the sound of an excellent folk artist remaining in the peak of… (read more)
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Tim Buckley – “Blue Afternoon”
‘Blue Afternoon’ returns Tim Buckley to a more conventional, modest-length song format, a departure from the ethereal album cohesion shown prior. (read more)
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David Bowie – “David Bowie” (1969)
There are some serious hints of brilliance on 1969‘s David Bowie in its beautiful psychedelic/folk songs “Space Oddity” and “Letter to Hermione.” “Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud” and “Memory of a Free Festival” also deserve some mention. Most tracks on here have interesting segments to them, like the beginning of “Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed.”… (read more)
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Arcade Fire – “The Suburbs”
Name(s): The SuburbsArtist(s): Arcade FireFormat(s): Album (63:55)Genre(s): Indie Rock / Indie Pop / Indie FolkRelease Date(s): August 3, 2010 I don’t completely understand why some people malign The Suburbs so much. It makes sense Arcade Fire would strip down their rambunctious sound and lyrical obscurities to reflect the simpler nature of their suburban youths. It’s… (read more)