Love and Leave – Scattered Trees (Free Download)
Scattered Trees (@scatteredtrees) has decidedly won me over with a reference to Star Wars. While their new album Sympathy can certainly stand on its own, impressing with deep harmonies and a mixture of textured synth and beautiful instrumentation, the accompanying music video puts them over the top. For me, the “Love and Leave” video answers the question, “how would storm troopers fit into our everyday life here?” The answer: they would feel the pangs of life on earth (a life without the force) just like the rest of us.
Filmed in the band’s apartment and directed by guitarist J.M. Harper, the saga (very) loosely follows the story told in “A New Hope”. These storm troopers, though, are certainly more emo than the mindless drones that populate the movies.
Their new album Sympathy is a lyrical, personal journey led by singer Nate Eiesland and a choir of careful, poignant background vocals behind him. The album incorporates a range of instruments and sounds, arranging tracks so that buzzing guitars sit beside the mandolin, piano, and orchestral elements. For a first release, this band has clearly already become comfortable enough with their core sound to stretch and expand it to new heights. This is particularly the case with “A Conversation About Death On New Years Eve”, which, in addition to the guitar pieces found on other songs, adds a synthetic drum beat to provide a fresh take. The most striking track, “5 Minutes”, begins with a slow groove like many others on the album, but slowly builds to an emotional high.
The band is only playing a few SXSW shows, but either are certainly worth checking out:
03/17: Austin, TX @ Dizzy Rooster
03/18: Austin, TX @ The Ghost Room (NAIL/The MuseBox SXSW Day Party)
