Survival [CD]

There's a part on Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's "4 Way Street" live double album, where I guess Graham Nash says (well I guess it might be David Crosby or Stephen Stills) "And now we're gonna do a song that you have not heard!" and the way he says it, in his 1970s precious unassuming voice, it is this exciting secret invitation to experience something no one else has ever experienced, CSNY performing this little ditty for the first time ever. The song was "Right Between the Eyes" and when I first heard it, even though it'd probably been at least 25 years since that `first time'--- to me it was brand new. This `newness' is exactly what I love about so many albums that I practically trip over in my musical life, Forest Fire's "Survival" being one such gem.

The first time I heard the opening track "I Make Windows," I loved the fresh, stumbling through-an-open-field-soft-yet-plunging-to-the-depths-of-you-style that makes me love it! The guitars are sunny, there's a nostalgia for `I don't know what' in the sound. I love how an album can `REMIND' me of a past event yet be released in 2008. The album is quick and enveloping. I sunk so easily into its breezy simple melodies and quickly lodged the words into my brain and was unable to resist singing along with its pleasant harmonies.

"Sunshine City" made my summer of 2008 and I can't even fathom exactly why. "Iiiiiii haaaavveee sunnnnshiiinnneeeeee... in my life," is repeated so many times, broken up only to say "I don't care if what you say is true..." There's such a strong statement in its sneaking quiet, crawling guitar sounds, blazing dissonant atmospheric angel voices `ooohing' in the background. In "Sunshine City," I am so resolute in my happiness despite the completely NOT SUNSHINE CITY that is the world. There's so much good here, WHO CARES about the bad???

Call me naive, but that's the cool part about songs like this one... for three minutes I believe something that is entirely untrue. "Rock n' roll can save the world?!!? I sound like a _____!" - from Almost Famous

It's odd how the whole album kind of gives the same vibe, yet none of the songs really sound alike. There's a texture on each one that is completely palpable. I can actually hear the sun warming me on a summer afternoon as the sky turns orange on "Echoes Coming" with its slow procession of vocals and building buzzing guitars. And by the time I get to "Steer Me," Forest Fire is singing "I don't like what I've become" and it is reality, but it's still so freshfaced and great. The whole album kind of rings of a slower, drudging, more blissed-out Sparklehorse.

The title track "Survival" is one of the best on the album, but doesn't phone it in until Track 8. "What do you know about survival?" the song is needling me to answer this question and how the hell am I supposed to answer when you're playing these sycophantic flutes and country road guitars?

The last track is entitled "Slow Motion" which is an accurate description of the entire album. It is slow motion slices of life, like how you feel when you're really tired and the sun's coming up and you're staring at that big orange ball contemplating being the only person alive.

Oh wait, I'm not! Thanks Forest Fire, for reminding me other people are out there! What's up!?!?!?!!?

I bought this album after hearing the song "I Make Windows" on the band's myspace page. I was only directed to it by one of the "Best Of" year end lists I was reading. I had never heard of them, but I checked them out. I felt like I was in a rut with the music I was listening to at the time, and this was the first song that I had heard in a while that really made me want to check out a different band. I bought the album after hearing just that one song. I was a little concerned to pay an import price for an album that is only about 28 minutes, but it is one of the best albums I bought last year.
As for the music, I have trouble describing it. It seems very simple a lot of the time, and then all of a sudden there are instruments and lyrics I'd never expect. I read somewhere that the band wanted a more spontaneous sound rather than an overly polished, very produced one, and that's what they got; I get the same feeling from listening to it that I do when I watch smaller bands perform live. I can't describe the music well, but I've read other reviews that call it a pop-folk-freakout, and that's about as good as I could put it. It's an album that might seem a little strange or even bare at first, but I've found myself putting it on repeat since I got it. The tracks that stand out to me are "I Make Windows," "Steer Me," Through My Gloves," and "Survival."

Found it for free, but had to support the band and pay for it too. First heard them on Blip.fm