White Violet : Hiding, Mingling

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/whiteviolethidingmingling.jpg" alt="White Violet : Hiding, Mingling" /><br /> In the reams of stripped, soul baring alt-country/folk, you might have missed Athens, Georgia's Nate Nelson. ...
White Violet : Hiding, Mingling
7.8 Normaltown
2012 

White Violet : Hiding, Mingling In the reams of stripped, soul baring alt-country/folk, you might have missed Athens, Georgia’s Nate Nelson.  He’s been writing songs for a decade, and now comes out with his first with full band as White Violet.  Hiding, Mingling will seem familiar to those who like stripped, soul baring alt-country/folk, but it’s also better stripped, soul baring, alt-country/folk.

A decidedly downbeat record (press release says, "It’s not sing along; it’s sing alone," which is one of the better press release lines about a record…), Hiding, Mingling has the intimacy and sorrow that allowed For Emma, Forever Ago (QRO review) to turn Bon Iver from the touring guitarist for The Rosebuds (QRO photos with Rosebuds) to playing massive venues (QRO live review) and being impersonated by Justin Timberlake on Saturday Night Live (QRO Indie On Late Night TV).  One can hear the fingers on the frets in opener "White Wash", but White Violet doesn’t have to be that intimate to be effective.  The following "4 AM" works by emotional carry, while "Everyday Is Listening" has both a wryer loss and a folk-catch chorus.  Meanwhile, there’s beauty in the penultimate "A Book" and shadowed loss to the subsequent "Ghost, Teacher, Girl, and I".

Hiding, Mingling does not reinvent the sorrowful folk wheel, but it doesn’t need to.  It’s a powerful record that holds up on its own or in its crowded field.

MP3 Stream: "Everyday Is Listening"

{audio}/mp3/files/White Violet – Everyday Is Listening.mp3{/audio}

Categories
Album Reviews
  • Anonymous
    at
  • No Comment

    Leave a Reply

    Album of the Week