Review: Wye Oak: The Knot [B+]

Artist: Wye Oak
Album: The Knot
Released: July 2009
Label: Merge Records
Genre: indie folk/dream pop

Purchase date: 07 Jan 2010
Source: emusic.com

Wye Oak is a Baltimore-based duo, with Andy Stack on drums, keyboards, and harmony vocals; and Jenn Wasner on guitar and lead vocal. On their sophomore album The Knot, the band spins an exquisitely gorgeous, dense, dreamy sound around somewhat simple melodies and melancholy lyrics. This album is all about experiencing the sound-- a mesmerizing, droning, beautiful sound that I found extremely arresting. I sometimes put music on in the background while I'm doing something else, and while this music doesn't demand your attention, you will suddenly find yourself lost in its lushness. On the downside, the band doesn't try all that hard to distinguish one track from another, and there is no sense of motion. However, in the moment, the music is wonderful.

Listen to "Take It In"

Listing on eMusic

Listing on Amazon

Rating: B+

Reboot (Again): New Blog Goals

Okay, it's been more than a year and a half since my last post. Let's try something new, and we'll see if I can stick with it.

I'm going to turn this into my music review blog. My goal is to do a short review of each album I've purchased or downloaded in 2010, starting back in January. I'm shooting for one review a day, but I'll be happy with five a week.

Let's see how this goes!