Review: Anathallo – Canopy Glow

Anathallo are a young seven-piece chamber pop ensemble that plays in odd time signatures with vast instrumentation – brass quartet, mallet and auxiliary percussion, multi-part vocal harmony, in addition to bass/drums/guitar/piano. Although this could very easily lead to an art rock wank-fest, Anathallo performs carefully crafted songs ranging from lush musical landscapes to intricate chamber music. The band’s three previous full-length releases have shown a distinct development from a slightly punky teenaged thrash into tight cohesion, and Canopy Glow truly puts the cherry on top of this development.

Lead singer Matt Joynt has a young and fresh voice, but it is not lacking in refinement or skill. It is a pretty common thing for Anathallo to be mentioned in the same breath as Sufjan Stevens. Anathallo is clearly a collaborative unit that admirably takes many sometimes-minimal elements and incorporates them into a singular well-oiled mechanical operation, each individual contribution fitting and blending perfectly. If Sufjan Stevens is a nice gold watch, Anathallo is a gold Swiss precision timepiece.

On the ten-track Canopy Glow, Joynt’s voice is frequently complemented by that of Erica Froman. The songs have memorable melodies that are both intricately rhythmic and broadly sweeping. Any of the songs can stand on their own two feet, but the album is best taken in as a complete work. The flow from one track to the next is impeccable, as is the ebb and flow of energy and dynamics. Every time I hear it, which is in the hundreds by this point, I hear a new countermelody, harmony, or instrument; Canopy Glow will hold my attention for years to come and will be hard to top. Of course, that’s what I thought about 2006’s Floating World.

Visit Anathallo’s website, blog, and Myspace.

2008 was a pretty damn good year for music, considering recent history. Instant classics were released by artists like Fleet Foxes, The Tallest Man on Earth, MGMT, Sigur Ros, Conor Oberst, Death Cab For Cutie, Coldplay, The Raconteurs, TV on the Radio… but Anathallo’s Canopy Glow was my favorite album of 2008. Even though 2009 is more than half over, I needed to put Anathallo somewhere on this site.

Anathallo are a young seven-piece chamber pop ensemble that plays in odd time signatures with vast instrumentation – brass quartet, mallet and auxiliary percussion, multi-part vocal harmony, in addition to bass/drums/guitar/piano. Although this could very easily lead to an art rock wank-fest, Anathallo performs carefully crafted songs ranging from lush musical landscapes to intricate chamber music. The band’s three previous full-length releases have shown a distinct development from a slightly punky teenaged thrash into tight cohesion, and Canopy Glow truly puts the cherry on top of this development.

Lead singer Matt Joynt has a young and fresh voice, but it is not lacking in refinement or skill. It is a pretty common thing for Anathallo to be mentioned in the same breath as Sufjan Stevens. Anathallo is clearly a collaborative unit that admirably takes many sometimes-minimal elements and incorporates them into a singular well-oiled mechanical operation, each individual contribution fitting and blending perfectly. If Sufjan Stevens is a nice gold watch, Anathallo is a gold Swiss precision timepiece.

On the ten-track Canopy Glow, Joynt’s voice is frequently complemented by that of Erica Froman. The songs have memorable melodies that are both intricately rhythmic and broadly sweeping. Any of the songs can stand on their own two feet, but the album is best taken in as a complete work. The flow from one track to the next is impeccable, as is the ebb and flow of energy and dynamics. Every time I hear it, which is in the hundreds by this point, I hear a new countermelody, harmony, or instrument; Canopy Glow will hold my attention for years to come and will be hard to top. Of course, that’s what I thought about 2006’s Floating World.

Visit Anathallo’s website, blog, and Myspace.