Daniel Burton recruits a talented cast, including members of Black Mountain and Windsor for the Derby, to expand a track from 2002’s Let Us Garlands Bring into a touching suite of songs surrounded by emotionally charged instrumentals.
The music itself is lush with reverb as several layers of guitars swim together rather than fight for dominance. Like comets or other celestial bodies, gentle feedback lends qualities of longing and melancholy that complement the other instruments and the vocals without stealing attention.
Beginning with “Deserter,” the core features three songs with lyrics lamenting narcissism, apathy, and the dissolution of responsibility. Generous cross-fading links them as much as the subtle melodic shifts that transform into new songs, weaving them together so tightly that each one would lose something were it to be separated from the others. The voices of Burton himself, Kate Long, and Amber Webber are all able to handle the weight of the music and maintain the same level of levity. Webber’s “Return of the Native” is especially frail, with a tender vulnerability that underscores lyrics such as, “Losing you to your desire/In rooms with ocean views.” The instrumentals are propulsive, wrapping the suite in an urgency and importance that give weight to the revelations within.
In its evocation of yearning landscapes and spiritual exhaustion, Offshore is the perfect complement to summer nights.
samples:
Read More
