For the Record: The Album Leaf – A Chorus of Storytellers

San Diego’s Jimmy LaValle is no stranger to taking a formulaic approach to music; indeed, when he introduced the world to his solo material aside from his work with the instrumental post-rock group, Tristeza, it had a subdued melancholy that countered the brighter exuberance in the clean and spiraling inflections of his main project. This was a theme that ran through his debut, consistently reproduced with some success on his subsequent releases. Playing and recording under the name The Album Leaf, LaValle is riding the quieter end of the ‘post-rock’ wave, for lack of a better genre tag; by no means to be considered background music but dangerously close all the same.

It is this choice of path that has created a clear divide between critics. Some are full of praise for the calm beauty that is laced throughout his work, and others have been harshly critical for the same reason, citing repetition in his signature melodious sound that they claim is rehashed and repackaged for each successive record he releases.
Although his solo work somewhat betrays his roots in Tristeza, he also displays a penchant for a more brooding, atmosphere, strengthened by his musical prowess on many instruments, including drums, bass, keyboards, guitar, and of course, his vocal ability. His 2004 album, In a Safe Place, a title that suggests peace and stability, was largely recorded with members of the Icelandic quartet Sigur Rós in their own Iceland studio, Álafoss. The result was a meditative, gentle and expressive album, as was his 2006 effort, Into the Blue Again. Both albums display LaValle’s modus operandi, although the latter was more of a leap towards a pop-sensible sound.

This year saw the release of his fifth album, A Chorus of Storytellers, continuing very much in the same vein as his earlier work. For the first time, LaValle used a live band to track the record, an approach that lends a more natural feel. The album itself is, in a word, grand. It kicks off with ‘Perro’ – a slow-building, sample heavy track that serves as an introduction, nothing more. It doesn’t lack substance, but in typical Album Leaf fashion is a good lead-in to the stronger tracks that lie beyond. One of these stronger pieces emerges in the form of ‘There Is a Wind’ – the first track that appears that opens with signature Rhodes piano, but blooms rather wonderfully into the full band at work. This is where LaValle’s pop instinct kicks in with its hook-laden chorus ‘There’s a wind behind everyone/Takes us through our lives/I wish we could have stayed/But this wind takes us away,” and the dynamics of subtle, creative drumming and understated instrumentation keeps the track from possibly blowing into ostentatious territory.
Other standout tracks include the lovely ‘Within Dreams’, a song  with a slight fragility. It is a strangely organic affair, despite the spluttering electronic beats, and is somewhat reminiscent of Sigur Rós with an IDM backbone. The rich string section coursing throughout gives a nice melodic counterpart to the keyboard flourishes and sweeps. ‘Until The Last’ is another that employs the strings technique to some success, achieving an almost epic, deeply rich sound carried on the shoulders of the basic track itself.

It can be equally risky to be a jack-of-all-trades or a master of one, and The Album Leaf is in the latter camp. Yes, Jimmy LaValle may have a formula; he may not stray far from that formula, but what compounds he delivers make for extremely enjoyable listening.

My rating? 7 out of 10.

A Chorus of Storytellers is out now on Sub Pop Records.

Tags: Album, For the Record, Jimmy, LaValle, Leaf, Pop, Post-rock, Sub

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