As of a couple years ago, I had never heard of Trampled By Turtles. With their release of Palomino, my eyes were opened to a band quite unlike anything out there. Fast forward through multiple live shows of theirs I took in, and we get to the anticipation of another album. Here we have Stars and Satellites, consisting of a few songs I already knew, I eagerly awaited its release.
To say its a beautiful album, that’d probably be an understatement. I like to think the album is a macrocosm to lead single “Alone,” its beginnings small, almost like a dandelion blowing in the wind, and the wind blows it apart into millions of pieces and all of a sudden, your lawn is littered with them. The song gets stronger and stronger, and more and more majestic.
Each listen to this record reveals a few more wrinkles, a few more layers of beautifully composed music thats every bit as folksy as their previous efforts. On S&S you have the sweeping, lofty bluegrass songs (Listen to Alone, Midnight on the Innerstate, Widowers Heart) & the punk / rock influenced rambling barnstormers (Listen to Risk or Walt Whitman).
When it comes to a top to bottom record, Stars & Satellites has very little weakness, this is not only one of my favorite folk / bluegrass records out this year, but just one of my favorite records. The instrumentation is outstanding, the harmonies are crisp and near perfect, oh and the songwriting is damn fine.
Be First to Comment