Port O'Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing
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Port O'Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing (Tuesday July 15, 2008 4:18 PM ) Released on 14/07/08 Label: City Slang Supporting Bon Iver in a London church earlier this year, Californian five-piece Port O'Brien had all the hallmarks of The Next Big Thing - punctuating the hallowed air space of St Giles-in-the-Fields with an unholy communion of melody, bluster and verve. Teetering with revivalist enthusiasm, beards and an infectious charm, the band set the scene perfectly for the backwoods man from Wisconsin; loud, powerful and spontaneous. A veritable storm before the quiet. Such was the power of that performance, it's initially disappointing, then, that first impressions of their debut album is one of sheer indebtedness to current US indie trends. While forging their own future onstage and revelling in the freedom, opening track I Woke Up Today is pretty much an amalgamation of Arcade Fire (the en masse backing vocals), Broken Social Scene (the break downs and build-ups) and The Decemberists (folk and nautical references abound). Port O'Brien create a hugely impressive folkish surge, but it frequently sounds like someone else's work. Initially, anyhow. Persevere however, and things improve mightily. Play the album twice, and its innate charm and personality reveal themselves. The seafaring concepts are still writ large (Stuck On A Boat, Fisherman's Sun, the gentle bobbing sway of Don't Take My Advice) but the songwriting is frequently inspired, framed by some gorgeous orchestral flourishes and stacked choruses of male and female voices. The likes of Pigeonhold and Close The Lid rush along jerkily, but there are moments of innate beauty too - particularly the relatively unadorned Will You Be There?, which is as stunning as anything on the Fleet Foxes album. It's not just the music that impresses either. When my hair is gone and my mind is weak / Will you be there?, croaks Cambria Goodwin, in a windswept update of Paul McCartney's When I'm 64. When I can't get out of bed, let alone go out to sea / Will you be there? Don't Ask My Advice is equally lovely (again, some nice lyrical couplets: My legs are telling me to run / But my heart tells me that you're the one) and the shambling glockenspiel...
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