#3 - LOST IN THE TREES: "Past Life"
Seldom do things of this beauty cross my path. "Past Life", the fourth full length album from the Chapel Hill, North Carolina band, is probably the most commercial... yet it is, to me, the most beautiful. While their early work had a natural beauty all its own, with the deeper string arrangements and accent on the cello over more traditional "Pop" instrumentation, this release holds on to what set this band apart early on. I feel confident in saying that the only thing that kept this album from being at the top spot is that some of the tracks pale in comparison to the grandeur that is found in songs like "Lady in White" and "Sun", the latter of which now sits in the very select small group of songs knows as my "Diamond Cutters" (a story for another time)...which are my favorite songs of all time.
I first heard the band when one of the tracks (the track "Rites") was featured on an Anti-Records Black Friday Record Store Day sampler, released in 2013. The song (and the sampler) were released several months prior to the 2014 release of "Past Life", but it was enough to not only put the band on my radar, but leave me craving the release of this album.
This music is beautiful. It's from the heart. It's in a league all of its own.
"Past Life"
"Sun" (Album Stream)
The Farewell Performance (Whatever that means) Concert
NPR Tine Desk Concert - 2010
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