John Vanderslice - Emerald City
Reviewed by mike
Even the most conceptual of writers often struggle with straddling the fence between giving away too much of a story and dropping the reader, or listener in this case, into a scene and allowing them to make of it what they will. Literate without being overly dramatic, indie hero John Vanderslice’s latest solo release Emerald City (a reference to an area of Baghdad) successfully does both by creating a fictitious atmosphere of what’s seemingly a terrorist attack followed by its aftermath. Recorded extremely lo-fi, Emerald City’s crackle-y bounces from introspective Bright Eyes/Decemberists folk to Flaming Lips eclecticism to ragged Spoon-like rock don’t always lead to a comforting sound, but if the story is what it seems, discordance is necessary. [www.barsuk.com]