Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 10/25/2005
It's been five years since Chicago-based
folk/
Americana/
orchestral pop collective
the Pinetop Seven released
Bringing Home the Last Great Strike, a record that sounded to many ears like a swan song. It turns out that vocalist/songwriter/bandleader
Darren Richard and his rotating ensemble of multi-instrumentalists were only hibernating in the studio.
Night's Bloom, the group's fourth full-length collection of new material, contains more of the spooky, poignant, and unsettling Northern gothic
pop that's been their muse for the past ten years, but this time around,
Richard and company have birthed a true thing of beauty. Beginning in appropriate
Pinetop fashion with a short instrumental that wouldn't sound out of place on
HBO's
Deadwood,
Bloom then takes its title literally, branching out in every direction and using every instrument within reach to craft the kind of Midwest
alternative country tome that groups like
Okkervil River and
Calexico have only hinted at. One listen to the familial strings and banjo romp
"Born Among the Born Again," the
Salvation Army Band-kissed
"A Mouthful of Expensive Teeth," or the epic road trip
"A Page from the Desert" is enough to fuel a hundred winter fires.
~James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
Cart 0 items
Listen
