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"come, arrow, come!", the debut album by Brooklyn based Festival, opens with what can only be called an a capella madrigal ("Fair and True"). The instruments fold in during the last third of the song but by then you know if this album is for you or not. You will either have fallen in love with the vocal work of sisters Lindsay and Alexis Powell or you won't.
I can't see how you couldn't be struck by the vibrant, complex interplay and exchange of their voices. You know that you're onto some thing good when the perfection of the two women's harmony is just the start of how interesting their vocal arrangements are.
At its heart this album is wonderfully composed collection of folk pop. Generally understated but with moments of near rock thrown in, there's even a hint of Walter Sickert-"death folk"-dissonance on "Return". But overall this is sweet, lilting music, it makes you smile and feel comforted. The pure pop joy of "Valentine" is like candy. "Bind Us All" is a 60s radio soundtrack to a mystical drawing-down-of-the-moon (and is my favorite track on the CD).
While I've been listening to this album I was concurrently reading up on the legends of King Arthur, as it happens "come, arrow, come!" is the perfect compliment to those mythic studies.
The instrumentation found here is simple and never cluttered, the end result being bright, clean and hypnotic. These ten songs are lovely without being flimsy, effortless and buoyant without being weightless.
Clocking in at almost exactly half an hour this recording is like a winsome, brief dream. You just want to close your eyes and slip back into it.
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Festival:
http://www.funwithfestival.com/
http://www.myspace.com/linzyandlexi
Language of Stone:
http://www.languageofstone.com/
http://www.myspace.com/languageofstones
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