01. I Know Someone Who Can't Recognize
02. Asleep On A Train
03. The Birds In Your Chest
04. The Roots
05. Intimidated By Silence
06. The Sun Always Sets
07. Drop Ceilings And Day Planners
08. The Leaves
09. Some Lonesome Street Corner
10. Dead Telephone
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In the case of the second full-length that multi-instrumentalist Tom Filepp is releasing under the name Cars & Trains, the answer would amount to about 75 percent inorganic material.
Like fellow musical polymaths Tunng and Tune-Yards, Filepp patches his rather straightforward folk and pop songs -- tracks that are anchored by traditional instruments like acoustic guitar, banjo and glockenspiel -- with the warp and clatter and thud of modern electronic production styles.
It's a welcome addition to his sound, however, and one that feels natural throughout the 10 tracks of "The Roots, the Leaves." In fact, unlike his peers, these songs would be nearly insubstantial without it. A song such as "The Birds in Your Chest" is threadbare at its core, led as it is by a sparse guitar line and rambling vocals. But with the spacey warble of a synthesizer in the background and a programmed beat that sounds like it was constructed from samples of ball bearings clinking together, it feels fuller and surprisingly warmer.
For an album that concerns itself musically with the tension between natural and unnatural sounds, it stands to reason that Filepp would address these same ideas lyrically. In fact, the most potent theme that carries through most of the songs concerns that most natural of acts: dying.
Filepp worries about the impermanence of life as it relates most often to the permanent marks we humans leave behind on the planet, or, as he does on "Asleep on a Train," wonders aloud, "The air that I displace/won't even remember my name/or any other details/of the lines in my face." It's a stirring statement that sets the tone for a stirring album.
www.carsandtrains.net
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