“Who You Were” is a CD that I’ve been sitting on for
quite some time because through these intricate layers of music comes a sound
that could easily be identified by those not willing to give it 100%, but if
you really do listen closely enough and pick apart it is simply not that
simple.
On the surface, and perhaps for many other reviewers
who are lazier than me, Paper Hill Casket Company has a sound of folk and
Americana music. It’s what the kids
down south like to call acoustic with all the fixings. Most
people could/would simply write this off as being in the same genre as Mumford
& Sons, that folk revival type sound, but that simply isn’t the case.
The hardest part I had with reviewing this CD was
that I knew in my head what made sense, but I also knew that if I tried to
explain to everyone else it probably wouldn’t make sense to them. Many years ago, when I still lived in
Connecticut the first time, I got the chance to interview the band Streetlight
Manifesto.
Now without getting on a huge rant about them, they
had just released their first album and I mentioned to them that they had more
of a rock n roll sound to their music than a ska sound, even though most people
would simply write them off as ska (and not always in a bad way)
So I feel like PHCC is to the folk revival what SLM
is to ska. The ingredients are there
for people to mistake this as such, but on the whole it really doesn’t fall in
the same pile as all those many, many other bands who have come out on the
heels of Mumford and are trying to score a hit.
There is a bunch of folk punk in here as well, or as
I more fittingly like to call it anti-folk.
And then there is just the good
old fashioned rock n roll because appearances can be deceiving. Just because they have right instruments,
doesn’t mean they’re playing the sound that you’d assume.
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