Posted on: February 1, 2010 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Noah Georgeson – Find Shelter / 2006 Plain / 12 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/findshelter / http://www.plainrecordings.com / Reviewed 15 April 2007

The opening to “Find Shelter” is a track that feels almost as if Georgeson copped the music from a early sixties cowboy movie. In a sense, there are hints of Ennio Morricone tied to “The Sound of Music”, which creates something that is brooding yet hopeful all at the same time. When the vocals come into play during “Walking On Someone’s Else’s Name”, the same style of emotion is present but there is a sharpness present that was not present during “Tied To The Mountains”.

The music is not anything that individuals would normally hear on the radio, but one would not do Georgeson service by only hearing one of the 12 cuts on “Find Shelter”. There is an older tradition tapped during the title track. Durig this track, it feels as if Georgeson is going down the path bravely blazed by individuals like Banhart; there are hints of 2006, but the song just feels so much more 1926 than anything. While it feels like each of the tracks on “Find Shelter” are on the long end of four minutes, the entirety of the disc is packed into a half-hour. The masterful use of time by Georgeson shows eir maturity as a musician. During a track like “Hand Me, Please, A City”, Georgeson is single-handedly able to create the whole of the harmony on the track with eir vocals. The track ends quickly, barely cracking the two-minute mark, but it’s presence and impact cannot be overstated. There is one issue that comes forth during “Glorious Glory”, and that is the inflection that Georgeson achieves during the track. It is one thing to have a close grouping of vocal approaches throughout a disc, but Georgeson almost has a monotone through a number of tracks on “Find Shelter”.

There is something of a positive that presents itself during this track, and that is the Voltaire-like chorus that comes forth. The vast majority of tracks on “Find Shelter” are fun to listen to and tell a story, but there are some sharp edges to Georgeson’s approach that need to be filed down before Georgeson can have a complete success. “An Anvil” is the strongest track on the disc, for the interesting use of vocals at the beginning; if more tracks could use this experimental nature, then the sequel to “Find Shelter” will be on the top lists of all music reviewers for the year it comes out.

Top Tracks: An Anvil, Angry Afternoon

Rating: 6.0/10

[JMcQ]

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