The Autumn Defense - 'Circles' (Cooking Vinyl)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
If there is one phrase needed to sum this up perfectly, 'this is the life' is probably it. Fold your arms behind your head, deep breath - that's the stuff.
Oddities, they are, are The Autumn Defense (they do spell it that way, honest), featuring a certain John Stirratt of Wilco fame, a band who offer such a calming view on life that all text-books on anger-management should be rewritten so as they just feature the lyrics and chords to 'Circles'.
It's difficult to dislike a record that's so warm and comforting, but at times it needs to offer a little more to get us excited. Well, perhaps not even excited, interested would do - especially at first, when standout moments seem few and far between. The record gambles on the listener slipping into its depths unaware rather than focusing on grabbing them by the throat. After one spin, you're (somewhat foolishly, it's true) inclined to form the opinion that this is neither a bad album nor an astounding one, but a very sleepy one for sure.
It is more engaging that it first appears, however. On the contrary to there being nothing (as you worry is the case the first few listens), there's a strong, nagging element to 'Circles' which is absolutely everywhere. You guessed it - melody. It's dosed up to the eyeballs in dreamlike tunes, albeit for the most part very subtle ones. Its single moment of blatant, instant reward is 'Why I'm Like This', possibly the song Turin Brakes have been searching for over their past two albums. It's very reflective, sore head king of stuff, and possibly a cure for such an ailment, too.
Thankfully, it doesn't have that distinct 'only a side-project after all' feel that so many 'featuring so and so of...' stickers suggest. It's soft, but delicately passionate and heartfelt, a musical rendition of a holiday romance made by people who aren't ready to forget. It's a sentiment that lightly features on most parts of 'Circles', perhaps most strongly on the sweet lament of 'The Answer' or the dulcet tones of its closely related cousin 'The World (Will Soon Turn Our Way)', probably the utterly captivating peak of the record's good points.
It admits its casual nature right from the start, and while it sounds as if it was a gentle release for the band making it, anyone hearing the album is required to put in some effort to fully get the goods from 'Circles'. It's work, but not in the sense of there being so many things going on that it takes time to fathom their complexity or true depth, rather that the simplicity throws you off course; you can listen to opener 'Silence' a good few times with it leaving no impression whatsoever before you realise you actually know every note, and then things start to get fun... The moral of the story? Stop searching for what's hidden (trust us, it's not there) and realise this is a very basic, straight road we're dealing with here. For the best results, take our advice and stick to it.
Artists in this article: The Autumn Defense
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment