release date: Nov. 12, 2007
format: cd (AATTCD06)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,52]
producer: self-produced
label: AATT - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Domed" - 2. "The Beautiful Silence" - 3. "Rive droite" - 4. "Mary of the Woods" - 9. "Stay Away From the Accordion Girl" (live) - 12. "A Man With a Drum"
10th studio album by And Also the Trees is another self-released album. The cover info only mentions recording and mixing credits - Matthew Devenish recorded and mixed. This is the first album not to feature bassist Steven Burrows, and it's the first to have both new bass player Ian Jenkins and keyboardist Emer Brizzolara as new members, which means that the band by now has been expanded to a quintet (actually, Burrows has never officially left the band, although, he hasn't taken an active part in the process of the band's later releases - as now of 2016).
The album marks a return to a more evident gothic rock, post-punk that doesn't really sound outdated. In 2007 that's a work well done! I think, they succeed pretty well by focusing on their strengths in producing tension within beauty and darkness. By doing so they remind me of Tindersticks, although, the previous album is even closer to the Tindersticks style. Without strings and brass this is hardly chamber pop but it has that certain sincerity and beautiful narration, which characterises their best albums - when music and vocals go hand in hand, and when the music supports the lyrics instead of drowns them.
