Rapid Fire Reviews: Indie Folk Artists That People LOVE

This week on "Upsetting Indie Fans" I'm taking on a gauntlet of artists who I either sort of like, or have never really understood in the first place yet they continue to receive massive amounts of critical acclaim. I'm giving them another spin to see if I figure it out all of a sudden. 

We've Been Going About This All Wrong - Sharon Van Etten

Unlike the theme of these reviews so ineloquently states I actually like Sharon Van Etten and I've been known to dish out some praise to her music in the past, not to mention she puts on an excellent live show. While I wasn't crazy about the previous two singles she released I was more than willing to give this entirely new batch of songs a shot, because her music often has the poise and subtlety to grow on me over time. The record leans into that patience throughout with almost all of these songs starting out both very slow and very sparse. If you stick with them a lot of these songs develop into very compelling highlights but it's a double-edged sword. The songs that fail to be compelling in their progression feel much more taxing and even though this record isn't very long it can occasionally feel like it. Thankfully those points are far fewer than the best moments and the record manages both an opening and closing run that are impressive and consistent. Not to mention an extremely dramatic and compelling centerpiece in the song Born which could end up among my favorite Sharon Van Etten tracks. This isn't my favorite project she's ever released but I do seem to enjoy it more than some other critics. 7/10

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You - Big Thief

My opinion on Big Thief has been no secret over the past 6 years or so. Even though I don't often write full length reviews of their material and that is because I just don't get it. Despite releasing what sounds like awfully generic and often painfully under-performed indie folk they continue to be one of the most acclaimed bands in the genre and perhaps all of music. So in 2019 when they released two more albums, both of which were acclaimed far beyond any reason that I could see I had to just throw my hands up and say I didn't get it. But even compared to their previous work the rapturous praise for their 20 track, 80 minute new album has been overwhelming. So when it came out I had to give it an honest shot and surprisingly, nothing about the band expanding their sound to well over an hour made their music any more tolerable to me. The music on here is rarely terrible and there's a bassline of talent that seems to prevent the band from making any decisions that turn out too badly and there are even some genuine highlights in the mix with bright and lovely moments like the title track and No Reason. But this narrative painted by so many music publications that this thing is somehow no filler couldn't be further from the truth. The middle of the record in particular is an extremely excruciating run as between the two songs I mentioned earlier there is really only one great song, the murky change of pace Blurred View, in a run of SEVEN tracks. While the record's closing run is both more consistent and more versatile the damage is sort of already done by the difficult slog at the album's core. The painful thing is that I think there's probably a 40 minute album in the mix here that is as good as any Big Thief project to date, but that isn't at all how this is presented. Once again I am WAY off of the critical consensus of a new Big Thief album and I'm wondering at this point if I'll ever be aligned. 5.5/10

You Belong There - Daniel Rossen

This is the debut album of Daniel Rossen from acclaimed indie band Grizzly Bear. Like the theme of this collection of reviews goes I've never been as big a fan of Grizzly Bear as many other indie fans. When I have liked the groups music it's been the darker and more chamber styles songs rather than their indie folk collection. After listening to the singles I was at least slightly hopeful that Daniel would be leaning into that side of things on this record. There is an element of the record here that reminds me of that sound, in fact it pulls off a compelling dichotomy between the intimacy of the instrumentation and the space it's allotted to exist in. Another thing I like about the record are Daniel's vocals which consistently held my attention with his fragile harmonies even when the refrains themselves weren't blowing me away. That really is the one achilles heel for the record I can't say very many of these songs set up very dynamic progressions. While there is a lot of drama in the presentation I can't say there were more than a few tracks that really grabbed me with the way they played out from a songwriting sense. I also have to point out how similar sounding these songs are all across the record which isn't necessarily a problem if the quality is consistent but with some of the shorter and more forgettable songs on the record I can't help but see them as merely weaker versions of its highlights. I don't think this record is going to completely alter my perception of Daniel or Grizzly Bear but it's better than I anticipated and better than some classic Grizzly Bear records that have a pretty good reputation. 6.5/10