Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 2.5 / 5 Reviewer: Greg Hutton |
A Chorus of Storytellers, the fifth album by Jimmy LaValle’s The Album Leaf, is not an album of extremes, but instead seems content to coast along at a fixed clip without asking too much of its listeners. Being able to describe the album as pretty would be fine, but one gets the sense that LaValle was aiming for something more profound.
A sense of familiarity flows throughout the album; most of the instrumental tracks are stagnant (‘Stand Still’ and ‘Summer Fog’ could be the same song, and are sequenced back-to-back, causing the middle-section of the album to drag). While these songs feature an impressive array of instruments that are lushly arranged, most follow a predictable pattern of beginning sparsely and building to a swell.
The sense of familiarity can also be attributed to track length – nine of the eleven songs clock-in between four and five minutes long. Of course, a song cannot be judged on its length alone, but the repetitive track lengths suggest song-writing that ‘s dangerously close to formulaic. The two songs that fall outside of this range (the three minute opener ‘Perro’ and the nearly six-minute ‘There Is A Wind’) are among the best on the album.
On the whole, Storytellers is an almost disarmingly easy listen, to the point that many songs are only distinguishable from others after repeated listens. While it may not have been LaValle’s intention to challenge listeners, taking a risk here or there may have resulted in a more engaging record.
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