Thursday, July 29, 2010

Music Review: Careful (Eric Lindley) - Oh, Light


Eric Lindley is the one-man dynamo behind Careful, and Oh, Light is his second full-length recording. The thirteen songs that make up Oh, Light are definitely in the singer-songwriter mode, although he adds processed vocals and uses samples at times.

The disc opens up with a 30-second music box sample, which sets the tone. From there, Lindley moves on to “Shot An Apple Off Her Head,” an acoustic lament, featuring some haunting guitar sounds. Lindley obviously has a lot of influences, but on a couple of tracks including “Scrappy” his voice sounds uncannily like Nick Drake.

The sound effects really begin to start appearing with “Laid Or Lain,” but they never overwhelm the basic, almost fragile nature of the tune. “Oi, etc” is another example of the way he uses the sampler in conjunction with his tender acoustic guitar.

“We Give Up” heralds the final suite of songs on Oh, Light. It is a dreamy, almost hallucinatory song, and a hard one to forget. This is followed by another mesmerizing tale, titled “Turns Out.” Lindley seems to be on a journey, the gently pulsating beat coupled with his quavering delivery mark this one as a true highlight of the record.

Finally we come to “I Shot Smaller And Smaller Fruits Off Her Head,” which is great for the title alone. It is a short, postscript type of song, interesting, but hardly as moving as “Turns Out.”

Oh, Light is a very good singer songwriter album, and it is available through a number of sources, including his Myspace page.

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