Monday, January 3, 2011

A Weather - Cove

"A postcard from the green and gray environs of Portland, Cove ismoody and warm, rife with odes of looming loss, hopeful notes to self and hushed revelations that speak directly to the yearning heart. Produced by Adam Selzer (M. Ward, The Decemberists, Norfolk and Western), the songs on Cove are marked with an intimacy so striking that it feels like you’re eavesdropping on the pillow talk of two forlorn lovers. Indeed, this is music to curl up with.

At the core of A Weather’s warm, soft-spoken sounds are the comely vocals of frontman / singer / songwriter Aaron Gerber and singer/drummer Sarah Winchester. With remarkable restraint and understated delivery, their harmonies trace each other, cross paths, diverge and intertwine, undercutting the gravity of AWeather’s material. 'In one way Cove is a catalogue of closely observed moments and particulars,' says Gerber. 'In another it is an oddly inspirational document of transience and entropy and trying to keep yourself together when things are falling apart.'

Cove swells with layers of sound (organs, Mellotron, percussion) and then drifts downward into moments of sparse acoustic guitar or a single piano. Winchester’s drumming (using only an upturned bass drum, a snare and a cymbal) is rock solid, uncluttered and highly musical. Meanwhile, guitarist Zach Boyle’s meandering, sinewy lines of electric guitar have been compared to a babbling brook – and why argue with that?"