in an age where most new music is recorded and designed to be listened to via crappy earplugs in short treble intense blasts, it’s a rather wonderful to come across an album that has been lovingly crafted and blended like a fine wine, where the source material has been revisited over and over until the results are properly ready for all to hear, and the songs being given time to breathe and develop until all the various components work together in perfect harmony.
so, going out on a limb, i would say that onward! by christian silva is one such album.
the use of guitars (delicate acoustics, and full on glam chords), pianos, banjos, synths, glockenspiels, and everything else but the kitchen sink, has a gorgeous timeless quality about it making listening to a complete album a genuinely pleasureable experience once again.
the reason for such a declaration is that christian silva, (no longer christiansilva by the looks of it – and consists of multi instrumentalist, christian hardy, and some of his mates), have released quite a few of the songs on the debut proper previously via mini albums, and various singles but in slightly different forms than here. however, the songs have been taken to one side, reappraised, had some of the sharper edges refined, and the excess curtailed, making onward! a far more consistent listen then i would ever have believed.
part of this success could be down to the introduction of some welcome production tweaks on a couple of tracks, by established studio boffin dave its mp3s we should be worrying about bascombe, as i would suggest that his experience have helped craft the final sound into being such a delight to listen to from end to end in one complete session.
of course, there are times the ‘self indulgent glam prog rock!’ phrase could be easily thrown in the direction of some of these songs, (hello the chopping board), but this makes the album even more special, as 3 minute formulaic indie pop is such a depressing genre to aspire to, and so, i for one, shout out a big hurrah for such artistic bravery in 2007.
now i will be the first to admit that christian has one of those show stopping, octave climbing vocals that can one minute caress and sooth, not that we’d notice being the best example of such beauty, and the next, strip your wallpaper. thankfully, the last couple of years have taught christian how to balance his obvious talent with an urge to make tunes that touch the heart and soul of the listener, and having hammered this album in recent times, i would say there are many many people out there, who if given the chance should indeed fall under the spell of this truly excellent debut album.
more detail : here