GRAND HALLWAY: Yes Is The Answer

Grand Hallway

Yes Is The Answer

© 2007 Tomo Nakayama/Grand Hallway (751937310822)

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Debut album from Seattle indie ensemble featuring members of Asahi and Voyager One. Spellbinding, cinematic piano-based art pop with layers of strings, woodwind, pedal steel, guitars, upright bass, and drums.

notes

Seattle band Grand Hallway's debut album, “Yes Is The Answer”, was recorded in the summer of 2006 by Jeramy Koepping and Moe Provencher at Jack Straw Studios. The eleven songs which comprise the album feature Tomo Nakayama’s instantly memorable melodies, supported by layers of guitars, upright bass, pedal steel, percussion, and strings (arranged by the band themselves.) Grand Hallway’s music spans a myriad of genres, often within a single song, all the while evoking a sense of familiarity in its spacious structures and plain spoken words. “Yes Is The Answer” is released exclusively in Japan on Sideout Records (home to Bright Eyes, Cursive, Nada Surf, The Velvet Teen), and self-released by the band in the US.

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"The finest, most exquisite craftsmanship has the power to turn ordinary objects into works of art. In the case of Grand Hallway's Yes is the Answer, it is this sort of craft that elevates Tomo Nakayama's songs--gorgeous, orchestral pop pieces that balance intricate arrangements of piano, strings, and countless other subtleties--to a higher plane of beauty. Without such attentive composition and production these songs would still be memorable; with it, they're transcendent. The instrumentation also amply underscores and amplifies Nakayama's lilting, warbling vocals. Seemingly every song contains at least one stirring, emotion-laden refrain or lyrical turn. On "Seward Park" it's Nakayama crying "I love you, dear" over a swell of crashing drums and skyward-climbing piano and strings; on "Darling, Wife" it's the roaring-electric-guitar-backed refrain of "red, white and blue birds." There's a healthy variety of slow, delicate songs (the somber waltz "Smiles Through Stale Breadcrumbs") and upbeat, rollicking numbers ("Napoleon's Left Shoe"), as well as plenty of variation within each song. "Giant Novels" starts as a brisk march that breaks down into a bombastic, lethargic bridge before amping back up for a waltzing outro. With such intriguing complexity, Yes is te Answer doesn't fail to satisfy long after the hooks are lodged in your brain, rewarding the attentive listener with a bevy of charming, subtle touches that don't surface until many listens later." - Seattle Sound

"Yes Is the Answer glows brightly with warm, delicate orchestration and thoughtful song structures. Smooth piano and swooning strings only slightly take the spotlight over Tomo Nakayama's tender crooning. The songs are sometimes sad ("Seward Park"), sometimes loving, and at times even playful ("Piano Room"). Slide guitar gives a light country flare to the otherwise poppy "Minimum Wage," while wind instruments and layers of plunking piano, violin, and guitar bring a slight Japanese folk sound to "Darling, Wife." - The Stranger

"I know of no singer that has a better voice than Tomo Nakayama. I also don't know of a more gorgeous record to be released in 2007, locally or otherwise." - Threeimaginarygirls.com

"Grand Hallway joins the departed Seldom and The Prom in the area's pantheon of talented, young, piano-based pop bands. Led by singer and songwriter Tomo Nakayama, the group has created an album of orchestrated chamber pop that manages to be simultaneously lush and delicate, all while maintaining Nakayama's personal and idiosyncratic vision" - WC Performer

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  • Grand, Indeed!
    author: Dennis Bourne

    Great album. Great sound and style. Only art pop I listen to is Candy Butchers and Sufjan Stevens, but these guys are encouraging me to branch out a little more. Masterful pianowork paired with piercing vocals and strong backup instrumentation sets a chill, but colorful mood. Definitely buy it.

  • author: Pamela at CD Baby

    With lilting melodies that are quietly spellbinding, Grand Hallway puts forth this record of lovely, roomy, and melancholic piano pop. Just when you think you’ve settled into the gaunt beauty of drums and piano, a profusion of strings, pedal steel, and vibraphone slide, and then burst out of the seams of this recording, leaving their colorful trails over the tape until they disappear from earshot again. The perfectly delicate and restrained, but dreamy nature of Tomo Nakayama’s lead vocals puts a sobering face of reality on these songs; while many of the instruments are often enough running riot behind the melodies, Nakayama’s fine-drawn vocal themes are padding through the reigned-in ruckus. Beyond the actual instrumentation, these are songs that never become predictable as time signature and tempo changes take you from gauzy, ride-heavy 4/4 verses to frenetically waltzing bridges and choruses. It’s a nostalgia-inducing tearjerker of a record that makes you feel a little better for having heard it… and felt it.

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