IN A SAFE PLACE

"In A Safe Place" is easily a post rock masterpiece. Although there is little climactic buildup, which is typical of the genre, Jimmy Lavell unwinds a wonderful story through ambient use of instrumental melodies, backed up intermittently by vocals. The electric aspect of the album is prevalent, but not overbearing--just enough to achieve the desired effect.

Although this album isn't a timeless progressive masterpiece on par with "Close to the Edge," "Dark Side of the Moon" and the like, it is still worthy of any serious prog listener's collection.

After getting into GYBE!, Explosions in the Sky, God is an Astronaut, Fly Pan am, Do Make Say Think, Valley of Giants, Mogwai, and La Zona... i gotta say i wasnt expecting this to be any good...i read the biography and sounded like it would be way too experimental or a clone of any of the bands mentioned above...gracefully it wasnt!...

This is easy the best Post Rock a lá movie soundtrack i have heard till now..and i've been listening all experimental/post rock... this is definitely one of my favourites.

Art has always been a "way of expression" ... and i always thought it depended on what "expression" word meant for it...

Take modern art for example, they draw a grey triangle in a white sheet and its lke "its art"... for those who says its art, just dont read this review and buy some Metal album.

Going deepply in several albums of this genre, the "meaning" of each album gives you the chance of comparing them, is not like you can say "this sounds better than GYBE" cause they are all very sentimental albums(i.e. Explosions In the Sky -The Earth)...... this album lacks the experimental improvisation bound breakers the other bands have...but in the other hand you have a way more strong meaning in this one.

Playing classical instruments, fusioned with ambience spacey synthetizers makes the album instantly easier to appreciate , the drums are not doing noise background, or non real long jammings, or anything like that...bass makes a huge roll in this album, you can hear how it gives the perfect "carpet" for everything to sound as free as posible from the structure of the song.

This also has passion like the others bands, but this one has an ingredient the others doesnt have... its cold but with hope... melodies that make you feel secure, not happy but gives you a very special state of mind called "Peace of mind" ...

I wish we had 4,5 star to choose...

dont skip this one....

Stay Classy

Listen this album is like listen Sigur Ros but more electronic but passionless, the whole album has the same atmosphere, that never caught me, the whole album it's even, not like EITS, where you can find, in a even album, a lot of mixtures, this album hasn't, is just the mixture of sigur ros+electronics, it's like to mix radio head (that ultra boring band) and sigur ros (that very talented band), i mean, all the talent of sigur rose being wasted while radio head is playing it.

So, it becomes really really boring, turn a good sound into a bad idea, i think that heard the sea has more rhythm changes in 1 minute that this album in almos 1 hour; maybe the following comment is stupid, but it album makes me feel like i'm in one of the most boring day between the change of season from winter to spring: calm, whit nothing happening, but not being nice (no matter what, all the springs days are good to walk).

Far to be a masterpiece, but i can't give it two star, it's almost like the definition Good, but non-essential, it would be close to good, and really non-essential (maybe mixing more rhythms, but that's just a maybe, it would be good)

Jimmy LaVallee has done something I thought was impossible. He has made me truly enjoy electronic drums! Usually, they detract from the sound, but he uses them in a way that ordinary drums could not be used, and therefore, they become original. The overall sound of ?The Album Leaf? is very slow and mellow, but the drums spice things up a little. This album, like all of the best Post-Rock, can definitely send you into another mindspace. The only negative for me is when they inject singing in 'On Your Way', (obviously not a singer by trade) but thankfully there is not too much of it. Highly Recommended.

I'm not really sure I understand the post-rock genre at all- it seems to be a huge umbrella term for a lot of disparate things. Sure, 'In A Safe Place' has the krautrock-influenced, touching on motorik percussion seen in 'Thule', and sure the emphasis throughout is on overall texture as with many post-rock bands, but with its violins and cello in tension with the drum machine later in the album it is worlds away from the guitar rambles of Explosions in the Sky. Its cold feel and restraint throughout divides it from the huge crescendos of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Post-rock is too nebulous a label entirely, so to be more specific I'd describe this as a curious strain of organic ambient post-rock, an infusion of classical instumentation and ambient synthesiser texturification set against jittery electronic drums.

Obviously this resulting hybrid owes a debt to SIGUR ROS with whom it was collaboratively made, with their trademark nonsense vocals even appearing on 'Over The Pond'. However they remain reined in by a more self-conscious LaValle and the result remains uniquely withdrawn and understated. Even the vocals add to this, they are more mumbled than sung out and the mixing often emphasises this- particularly on 'Eastern Glow' the vocals are constantly in danger of being drowned out. Whether by design or incompetence is largely irrelevant, the end result is a delicate foible wherein the words, any chance at a concrete description of narrative, is minimalised in favour of the atmospherics of the experience.

Throughout the second half of the album we see the skittery drum machine adding an edge to dreamy keyboards and soaring strings, a juxtaposition which creates a relaxed and ultimately accepting melancholia, particularly beautiful in 'Twenty Two Fourteen' and 'The Outer Banks'.

'Streamside' is the exception, as being unusually guitar-heavy gives it a much warmer feel than the rest of the album. Surrounding this track and again at the end of the album are strange inclusions of the musicians just talking, which gives the album an amateur, work-in-progress feel, complimenting the shaky vocals.

Not a roaring prog masterpiece by any means- so as much as I really like this album and consider it a fragile, pretty backdrop, a catalyst even to those deeply personal moments of just-having-a-quiet-think, I am somewhat baffled by its inclusion on this site. Three stars.

Another post-rock album. Which means it's a cross between background music, and a lullaby. Don't expect me to love it in the same way I love genesis or king crimson, there isn't enough here for that. But don't write it off just yet. I'll give it this: it is extremely pretty. Background lullaby it may be, but it fulfils that role perfectly, soothing my brain with its gentle beauty. Whether the music is happy or sad, I don't find myself made elated or saddened by it; more, I am left calmed by its aural stillness. Through more critical lenses, it might sound as if I am calling it unmoving, or, worse, boring. But sitting in the Italian countryside, drinking a bicchiere di vino rosso, it certainly doesn't feel that way. In a musical world populated by figures such as Steven Wilson, Robert Fripp, and Peter Gabriel, who are capable of pulling your heart out through your eyes and putting your emotions through a mangle, it is to be seen as a rather positive trait that this album can simply be played, heard, and enjoyed. It really is very pretty. The backing music has an oddly musical box-esque feel to it. No, not the genesis masterpiece, I mean it has that same soothing twinkle one would see a tiny ballerina rotating to in nurseries of old. In places, this gives way to melancholic string arrangements, and a piano. Over the top, simple vocal melodies carry their mixture of lyrical poetry and pseudo-linguistic sounds, from which one feels invited to create one's own poetry inside one's ear. Overall, then, as far as post-rock goes, this album ends up being something of a favourite, even if it isn't a hugely engaging listening experience. It has seen a good deal of listening time as I head towards slumber of an evening. For these reasons, I shall shock you all, and give this album 4/5

Another achingly gorgeous and melancholy piece of electronic post-rock from The Album Leaf. With impeccable production and performances, once again The Album Leaf stick to the Sigur Ros school of post-rock as opposed to the more ramshackle and rough around the edges variety practiced by Godspeed You Black Emperor or Mogwai. I agree with digdug's review that the electronic drums on this album are a particular treat - they're so hard to use in a way which doesn't just sound cheap and artificial, but here they prove to be an integral element of the sound. On the whole, it's not a revolutionary album, but it's still a winner in my book.