Style: folk rock, experimental
Label: Strike Line Media
Year: 2010
Home: New Jersey
Members: Shayfer James ~ vocals/piano
Dusty Bones ~ drums
Anna Gale ~ cello
Chris Hower ~ bass
Additional: Peter Horn ~ violin
Alex Raunjak ~ bass
Ian Scratch, Dony Wynn ~ drums
Sarah Zar ~ saw
Following a string section plucking out the sound of rain & a drum roll comes "I think I've found a passage out of here/maybe we could make our great escape/you didn't think we'd make it, did you dear/somewhere in this dark you lost your faith" opening the album via "Life Is Beautiful" sung over a pounding piano with a only a couple chords per bar, a trademarkable playing technique by James that recalls days of Seeger & Guthrie-esque travelling balladeers. From there the story unfolds in this noirpop, as James labels himself, landscape. 'Story' is the key word considering the linear notes read "all stories written & arranged". It's a story much in the same way that one uses the word when talking about Tom Waits, whose sound is very different though his early albums are a close cousin, but both Waits & James have created albums of mini-worlds, hopes & dreams over unique memorable rhythm arrangements using a scarcity of instruments that sound like their out of another time. British writer G.K. Chesterton once wrote that a miracle is the fact that the sun always rises & sets in the same way because to all logic it should eventually break the routine. In Shayfer's landscape, in Chestertonian spirit, the world itself is a miracle where the unexpected is the only thing to be expected & the intertwined spirit of hope & pain is as normal as salt & pepper. This is not one of those albums that you can listen to in the background or pull out a single or two ... there are no standout tracks just ten great tracks ... because, like Tom Waits, you've really got to just let this spin around & around on your player & really give it some attention. Don't worry about getting tired of it. It's one of those rare albums that you can listen to over & over & won't ever tire of ... I know, I've done it in trying to find the right words for this review.
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