Portishead and the Cowboy Junkies have made love while listening to Leonard Cohen under a dead Giant Sequoia in a haunted forest at midnight during a mild thunder storm, and the resulting lovechild is Brightblack Morning Light.
Man oh man this is the type of music that I’ve been waiting to come into my life for a while now. I went through a heavy– a heavy heavy– Portishead phase in college. Dummy had a huge impact on me, and really did change the way I listen to music. It wasn’t all about epic, soaring, heart-palpitation-inspiring anthems, I realized. It could also set and apply to your mood. It could be theme music. It could calm you down, or make you feel like a character in a movie you hadn’t seen yet.
So this, the second report card in my series on music I just got from my little brother, is about Brightblack Morning Light’s eponymous 2006 album.
Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light
From the Wikipedia entry on them, I just clicked through to the Pitchfork review of this album. This is the first line:
Despite sylvan genuflections and hippy naturalism, the shaggy Alabama-born, Northern California-based core of Brightblack Morning Light are surprisingly redolent of Royal Trux.
Hey Pitchfork: go to hell. Really. That sentence was as far as I made it. Clicking through to Pitchfork is like going back to a crazy ex: you know she’s still nuts, still just flat-out wrong for you, but all your friends keep talking about her and how cool she was– turns out they’ve even been spending time with her behind your back!– so despite yourself you give it another shot, if only (you know in the back of your mind) to reclaim a bit of ownership and feed your ego. But no.
Aside from the sylvan genuflections and hippy naturalism of this album– which, you know, are just the first and most obvious things that jump out at you on first listen– what I love here is the depth and richness of sound. This is definitely an album to be listened to on quality speakers or headphones. You could cut through these thick, dark songs with a knife.
The opening track “Everybody Daylight” most certainly lets you know that you’re in for a listen unlike anything you’ve heard since you quietly sang Mazzy Star’s So Tonight That I Might See to yourself on a drive home from high school, covering your mouth with a fake cough as you drove by other cars. Only there is no delicate lead signer a la Hope Sandoval or any psychedelic My Bloody Valentine-like light guitar fuzz. Just thick keys, bass and hushed vocals. And reverb. Lots and lots of reverb.
Have I mentioned that they’re surprisingly redolent of Royal Trux?
“Amber Canyon Magik” by Brightblack Morning Light
Grade: A-
mgdistrict
smitch
jimmymontreal
I can’t believe they would say “despite” the sylvan genuflections and hippy naturalism. That’s part of the appeal to me. These guys are big-time hippies, and not the annoying trustafarian type; they’re old school–like native american old school. Their level of hippiness is almost comical with song titles like “we share our blanket with the owl.” But it’s somehow very endearing. It’s a pleasure to put on some headphones and step into their la-la land.
oh wait, I just Pitchfork wasn’t necessarily criticizing the hippyness. They were just saying it wasn’t Royal Trux-ish. Whatever, they’re still a bunch of a-holes.
Agreed.