Cassette Review: Charcoal Owls "Tin Roof" (Equilibre Fragile Records)

[€8 // Edition of 40 // https://equilibrefragilerecords.bandcamp.com/album/charcoal-owls-tin-roof]

There is a funny thing about the term "bedroom" and how it applies to music because even though it could literally imply someone singing over a tape recorder with their acoustic guitar in their bedroom (Even so far as to say sitting on their bed), the fact is that it has expanded to mean so much more than just that.    As with "Tin Roof" by Charcoal Owls, this might not have been recorded in someone's bedroom but rather a studio though it still has that overall vibe which I can still picture Daniel Johnston at his piano (Which was in his basement if I remember correctly, but now we're just getting picky)

The first song on "Tin Roof" has the sounds of water and pianos.   It is tranquil as if you were at a day spa or some place of the sort that I've never actually been to before.    For me, it reminds me of the quiet afternoons when I lived with my parents and two sisters and no one else was home so I could just swim around the pool by myself.   Yes, I was young and reckless once too (Always swim with a buddy, kids)    The tone quickly transitions into an upbeat, dancy organ folk that goes back to my ideas of what the tag "bedroom" can mean.

It can get pretty wild as the pace livens, but then it also can become somewhat quieter where there are just soft drum beats over vocals.   At these times, which happen throughout the cassette, I can hear it as being somewhere between those Phill Collins drums we all know and love and that one song we all know by Gotye.   I prefer to go with the Phil Collins vibe though because I like him  a lot more than the other.

With a slight hint of the Flaming Lips, Charocal Owls has its own style of music which is perhaps because what takes front and center at these songs is often times the vocals and, well, I don't want to get cheesy but it's like saying Charcoal Owls have found their own voice.   It's just that notion that everyone has their own distinct voice and can sing with it as such but it then becomes a matter of whether or not it actually is something you want to hear.    Like Animal Flag before this, I do enjoy Charcoal Owls.     Now if we can work on getting a group of artists together based upon the fact that their names have animals in them (Or the word "animal" itself) then we might make a pretty decent go without even using a label like Merge.

Feeling full circle in ways, as much energy as this cassette may have had at the start, it begins to slow back down and become almost as peaceful and relaxing as it was at the very start, though now vocals are in place of the sounds of water.    In fact, at the end there I would even go so far as to say it sounds damn near like a funeral (But in a good way, as if to be the ultimate relaxation)