Snowmine
Dialects
Mystery Buildings
Street: 02.04
Snowmine = My Morning Jacket – Tears For Fears + Fleet Foxes
Sounding a bit like an unsigned 4AD band complete with moody, ethereal backgrounds, lush orchestrations and sometimes-coherent-sometimes-not vocals—the Brooklyn quintet certainly distances itself from its contemporaries by creating everything by hand. This complete control extends to the releasing of their material—including eschewing a record label—for this, their sophomore release. Time will tell if this was wise, but more importantly, it is with their upbeat material that they excel: Singles “Columbus” and “Silver Sieve” retain their cinematic beauty, incorporating dreamy, near sing-along—albeit at times unintelligible—harmonies. Lead singer/songwriter Grayson Sanders has a pleasant voice, even if it isn’t always clear what he is saying. While the more dramatic songs, like “Courts” and “Dollar Divided,” certainly have their place comfortably here—tracks like “Rome” or the especially lush and the catchy “Glide” and “Plans” are better for maintaining their respective beats. –Dean O Hillis