Something of an intriguing listen is Stay Close. With a band name like Death Vessel you instantly think of some mad, death metal band not the gentle acoustic folk that’s purveyed here. The solo project of one Joel Thibodeau, he’s joined on this album by Laura and Meg Baird of Espers, which will give you some idea of the music being crafted. There’s also the point that Joel’s singing voice sounds like a girl. Oh yes. A high and Carter Family-esque voice that sounds as if it’s come from the very mountains that spawned Bluegrass.

The main problem with this record is that it lack any kind of real cohesive structure. It meanders through it’s ten tracks of American folk, not really exercising any real voice of it’s own. It sounds like all the other bands that are crafting this kind of folk / anti-folk sound. It’s only when the sound is twisted a little, like the sinister Blowing Cave with it’s grating electric over acoustic guitars that things get interesting. The vocals aren’t the main focus, the music driving the song through a dustbowl of noise. One of the main problems is that Joel’s crone gets tiresome quite quickly and unfortunately the production centres on it, so the music always plays second fiddle to it. It’s only when the music drowns it out can you concentrate on something else. Other moments where it works like on Tiny Nervous Breakdown, which is a twee folk ballad with banjo and guitar that sounds like something from Jenny Lewis’ Rabbit Fur Coat album, the vocal harmonies dragging this above the average. And also on the gentle Snow Don’t Fall which is augmented by the presence of a, sadly neglected, electric guitar. It acts as an excellent contrast to the main folk theme running through the song.

So this record is a bit of a miss, not quite crafting an individual niche in this, now crowded, area of “nu-folk” music. To say that a record works when the vocals are drowned out isn’t the best compliment, but if Joel has his sights set on becoming truly great, then he’d do no worse by recruiting another singer and concentrate on the twisted folk aspects that make this album really work.
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Links
Death Vessel [official site] [myspace]