Cerca Trova has been playing intermittently over the past month as I've tried time and time again to pick out my favorites. Finally, I've decided that part of what makes this special is that it works so well as a full album. Starting with "Stereo", a song that uses the power of silence and simplicity allowing the voices of Nick Murphy and Courtney Cavanaugh hang in the air, leaving the listener wondering what's coming next. If you're a sucker for the male/female vocal thing, The Acre does it right.
Throughout the album, stories and themes evolve and grow upon one another as girls traipse through the songs either tired or wide eyed. The consistent voice throughout the album belongs to Nick Murphy as he sings about heavy hearts and a cluttered mind with occasional bouts of nostalgia. Whatever you interpret the stories to mean, it all comes across as painfully real. The love of music shows up often in the lyrics "there's something pulling/ at my heart strings and it's playing a tune" or "a case of nostalgia on the stereo" but is even more evident in the work they put in on the musical arrangements which span many genres and pull from their love of bands like Wilco, Low, Bon Iver, and Built to Spill as well as traditional folk and Americana music. All of which make it a very difficult sound to describe, but I know I like it, and that's all that really matters. It's a wonderful and sometimes rare thing these days to find yourself listening as much to the music as to the lyrics. I'm glad The Acre can do both well enough that they deserve to have far more than a local audience and following. You can listen to more on bandcamp.
The C.D. release party tomorrow, April 29th, will really be as much a party as a concert. You can look forward to not only seeing The Acre, but other notable and exciting bands like Ugly Purple Sweater, Bandit Kings, Kingsley Flood, and New York's Pearl and the Beard. Get your tickets early, it's bound to sell out. Expect a post with music from all the bands tomorrow.
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