Sound: Folk rock featuring the crisp, lady-like voice of Joel Thibodeau and a colorful instrumental palette that includes fingerpicked acoustic guitar and banjo, swirling organ, creepy piano, trumpet, and the most interesting musical weapon is the electric guitar. It usually shows up to heighten the tension or build the momentum and quickly exits, and its tone ranges from fuzzy/trippy to chugging/rootsy to clean/ringing to distorted/raucous. Meanwhile, the overall vibe of the songs ranges from pastoral/spirited to forlorn/mysterious to dark/urgent.
Heavy Rotation tracks: “The Widening”; “Jitterakadie”; “Block My Eye”
Medium Rotation tracks: “Exploded View”; “Obadiah In Oblivion”; “Peninsula”; “Circa”
Recommended: With Joel Thibodeau’s startlingly high (for a male) range, inventive musical arrangements and several hooky tunes, Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us is an oddly wonderful gem of an album.
Grade: A- (Top 20 Albums of 2008 Candidate)
Listen to Tracks/Buy Album:
On iTunes
On amazon.com
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