This is very simplistic song writing with a collage of instruments that creates a nice ambiance: piano, guitar, banjo, violin, slide guitar, cello, horn, oboe, bass and drums. Sufjan Stevens might be playing oboe but the whole thing sounds like an emulation of Sufjan and Nick Drake but lacking the soul. I can’t say that I am drawn to this recording much. The harmonies are nice but all of the songs are so slowly moving. It doesn’t really grab. I can see that Will Stratton has a pile of admiral influences and one can assume that he is classically trained on piano at least. Some examples being Erik Satie and Bill Evans (who has a very notable jazz trio), it is surprising that I am not feeling this more since I too really like these influences.
The banjo always sounds like it is in another room and I am wishing it was more up front. The whole thing has superb instrumentation though. I almost think with all of the finger-picking style, it would go well on it’s own without the vocals and worked more into an instrumental act. A lot of the songs sound the same but they just have different amounts of instruments in them.
I can see it doing well in certain circles but I am not really inspired to even write anything more about this because it is so bland.
