Until They Find The Bones Above

The Rural Alberta Advantage
Hometowns
July 2009 | Saddle Creek
---------- 6.7 ----------

The debut album, Hometowns from the Toronto collective starts off with a calmly building introduction that scales back to a nicely orchestrated embrace of sparse folksy pop. However it only takes them four more minutes to spark into a rousing stomp-clap beat and all the Saddle Creek preconceptions are met if not surpassed. From here on out, Hometowns is an undeniable, blatant heralding to Jeff Mangum's methods of lo-fi folk rock with harsh acoustic guitars, ramshackle percussion the occasional brass flank and a uniquely (well, not anymore) straining voice. The Rural Alberta Advantage might as well fork over some royalties but also shouldn't get too full of themselves because even though they resemble preconceived masterpieces, the songs appear cheap and rusty altogether.

mp3 | The Rural Alberta Advantage - Luciana
mp3 | The Rural Alberta Advantage - Frank AB

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