Chris
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stellar mood music
This cd is great! Melodic, catchy, heartbreaking, beautiful. Think Wilco on ecstasy. Think Flaming Lips on quaaludes. Do yourself a favor....buy it and listen to it late at night with the lights low.
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Bill Stella, Highest Common Denominator & GAAMC Challenge newsle
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Engages me, heart and soul, with its uncannily understated passion.
Calhoun Sometimes something brilliant comes to my attention just because a new band puts in an Add Friend Request, as it's called, at my profile at MySpace.com/bearealman . My deadline for a review column was October 20, 2006: And that's the date Calhoun's Add Request arrived. Their self-titled album has completely grabbed me. Somewhere between James Blunt and Conor Oberst's musical identity Bright Eyes in voice and style, Calhoun uncannily understates powerfully romantic notions of love, life and happiness. It's the ballsiest kind of music I can imagine: With relatively few electric guitars and modest use of bass, it doesn't scream at you to bow before its testosterone like headbangers. Instead, its strength is quieter, but incredible for the bravery of its idealism, its use of small gestures of dynamics and instrumental touches, its balanced approach requiring every sound to carry weight and resonance, its literate lyrics. Witness these, sung as if in the moment of their discovery, from "Summer / Winter": "In the summer sun / we walked alone / In the glory of / the sweet unknown // We won't grow old / but we'll never die / I look at you / And sigh // It's gold, It's grass / It's beautiful at last / Your eyes on fire / I want it all [too fast?] // Only one thing here is true / This love will live on / and heaven knew / What we started here today / The world could not subdue // We would always be strong / All Summer, Winter long." The passion grows but never goes over the top as it tumbles out in a long, unhurried, extended two-part refrain.
***
And that's just one example. *** I'm loving this album. And I have yet to hear more than the three full songs on myspace and the two-minute samples here. Help bring these guys the recognition they richly deserve: sample the music and, when your heart responds, you're sure to become a fan of Calhoun.
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