John Vanderslice
John Vanderslice, a singer-songwriter, and an advocate for warm analog recording as owner of Tiny Telephone Studio
Choir of Young Believers is a unique combination of indie-rock, pop, and folk with a heavy dose of reverb. The songs are generally ethereal and melodic, drawing on influences ranging from Roy Orbison to the Pixies. Makrigiannis wrote a majority of the album during a seven-month period of self-imposed isolation on the Greek island of Samos. On his return to Copenhagen, he collaborated with his friends Anders Rhedin and Fridolin Nordso. Together they took the skeletal piano and guitar sketches he had made of the album and fleshed them out into full choral and orchestral arrangements. Their innovative collaboration has inspired critics to describe “This Is for the White in Your Eyes” as “neck tingling”, “remarkable” and “sheer melancholic beauty.”
You might wonder where these critics get some of these words and phrases. We couldn’t tell you, but its been three days since the last time we listened to this remarkable album of sheer melancholic beauty, and our necks are still tingling.
(Choir of Young Believers on MySpace)
Newsom’s pure, lilting soprano has an ethereal, almost spiritual quality. “Have One On Me” is musically diverse, floating above any single genre, sometimes shifting from simple story-telling to jazz, blues, and popular 60’s folk music. Newsom’s predominant use of harp, along with obscure folk instruments like the tambura and kaval, gives the music a sometimes-medieval, sometimes-Eastern feel. Though, at times, the exotic gives way to more familiar instruments, like the piano, drums, and the electric guitar. Taken as a whole, “Have One On Me” is a rich experience that will leave listeners inspired and feeling somehow better for having heard the album. Most aren’t used to two-hour album experiences. We’re used to LPs of the half-hour, Juicy Fruit variety. But “Have One On Me” demands to be savored, and it’s worth every minute.
