in 2005 the world was exposed to one of the most exciting début albums ever, not to say one of the most exciting albums ever period. Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson hit the ground running, and impressed many people in doing so. the album had one foot in the emo genre with their delightful ’90s emo picked guitars and the occasional screamed vocals drew comparisons to acts such as City of Caterpillar on one hand, but then The Gloria Record on another level. Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson’s other foot stood balanced and firm in the progressive rock genre with their progressive and clever compositions. patient like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and climactic like Sigur Rós. in addition to these foots, Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson naturally had arms. one of which was a bit longer than the other, the dreamy ambient one. the other somewhat shorter arm was just as important though, the electronica arm. together, these four limbs crafted a somewhat introverted and philosophic kid who wore his feelings on the outside of his skin for everyone to see. and now Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson are back. with what is easily one of the most anticipating albums of the year, they face a great challenge in following their majestic début album (which also is up for download here somewhere down the list, by the way). what better way to take on the challenge then, but to produce one of the most ambitious releases of all time? none. released as a 32-paged book that comes with multiple colour variations of the cover and with a written text inside that varies from version to version, as well as many pretty pictures and beautiful colours, and on two CDs – this is definitely something more than just a second album. check out the cover. that picture as well as two more are included in the download. and here is two random pages in the book as well. and two more for good measure. and finally – a picture of the CD. and while they look lovely like that, I cannot stress how much you should definitely invest money in this album if you can afford to, because it’s rather cheap for a 32-paged book – and it’s so definitely worth it. you should probably buy it even if you don’t like the music – because it really is that good. and it feels nice to know they’ve put so much effort into this magnificent packaging. it just goes to prove that this band is interested in offering something different, something consistent and thorough. this will be a long post, demonstrating what a fatal flaw the design choice of one paragraph per post… but there are two discs, so I arrogantly divide this into two paragraphs to make it at least slightly easier to read.
like this… so now – to the music. because that is what truly matters. to me at least. while the book and the pictures inside of it gets me excited in its very inviting presentation, it is essentially worthless to me without the music to back it up. don’t get me wrong, I like pretty pictures – and if you are into that stuff you should as mentioned pick up the book even if you’re not into the music – but my relationship with pictures is mostly «hmm… that’s pretty… hmm… that’s also nice…» – it rarely goes way past that level of enthusiasm. so to me, the book is a compliment to the music – not a necessity. but it adds another level of ambition, and it’s so awesome that they are so dedicated to delivering a product that is flawless in each and every way, that you should really stop reading this and head over to http://www.howisannierecords.com and pick up your very own copy of this. actually I’m willing to bet that if you have heard this band before, you have probably already ordered a copy purely based on the début. if you however are in some kind of doubt – click the download button, and continue to read on. this album is a perfect album. or should I say these albums? because it’s divided up into two albums, “Puzzle” and “The Detective”. actually I’m not even sure I want to call it albums either. yerp. it’s official! we need a new term to do these glorious objects d’art proper justice. anyway – to compare this object d’art to the début is sort of hard, I guess. the reason being simply that both of the releases’ songs are so closely knitted together. the songs on the first release belong there, and putting them on this one would be wrong. and so, even comparing them gets a bit weird to me. but what I can say right of the bat is the obvious lack of electronic elements, the complete lack of programming, which might perhaps lend this album a more organic and timeless quality to it. there are also more vocals evident on this, something that sets them effectively apart from most of the ambient progressive rock bands who tend to be nearly or completely instrumental. Gjermund, the main vocalist, has a very mellow voice that blends in with the soft pieces of the compositions effortlessly and elegantly. and occasionally Torbjørn, the second to main vocalist, gets the opportunity to scream until his lungs give out here, just like he did on the début. these two vocalists are distinctly different from each other, and serve distinctly different yet equally important purposes. what great fortune this band has struck upon with two so gifted though different vocalists! or rather, what great fortune we – the fans – have struck upon, finding this band. this is generally the feeling that rushes through my body whilst listening to this. what great fortune! whenever the guitars twinkle and twinkle into a shining climax that is utterly useless to even try to compare to anything else ever, it’s another reason for me to rejoice. whenever the cello graces the soundscape by taking control, as if it’s running off a cliff, forming wings just before the take-off, it’s another reason to rejoice. the band describes the songs as sorrowful hymns somewhere inside the 32-paged book, but to me this album is joy embodied in the form of music. it’s essentially happiness inside of a book. with seven members, Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson creates a lot of happiness, and a lot of noise. several layers of noise even. some mellow noise, some crisp noise and some harsh noise – all pretty noise. with twinkling minor chords, sparkling major chords and extremely intense drumming not contrasted but complimented by soft and harmonic bass lines and cello – this band creates an angst-ridden playground, in which they bend and break the nerves with every opportunity that are presented for them. claustrophobic build-ups that lead into open and wide but focused and aimed climaxes. this object d’art is what you get if someone dumps every potential human emotion in an ocean of emotionally charged, dynamic and beautiful noise. take the picture now, because it doesn’t get more perfect than this exact moment. download. buy. http://www.howisannierecords.com