[Click here for Soundtrack]
God i love a good concept album. Let alone one that's arranged so intricately and spares no detail or element of sound. San Fermin's debut LP is the definition of a tour de force. A collective of 23 (?!?!?!) uber-talented musicians coming together to create a sound so blissfully beautiful. This is the type of album that affects you from the inside out. Every horn, every string, every vocal harmony penetrates your inner core and rises to climax after climax. Composer Ellis-Ludwig Leone is a cla**ical music composition graduate from Yale and he wrote this album in a remote mountain studio in Canada. How poetic is that? San Fermin weaves a male/female dichotomy interspersed with a multitude of Hemingway references and composition/arrangements reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens' best work. This is a can't miss album from a band that's destined for great things. I can't emphasize enough the emotions that this album inspires in me on every listen and how many people's heads i've made turn when I introduced them to this sound. Now it's your turn:
The album opens with Ludwig-Leone's keys and Allen Tate's thunderous baritone voice on "Renaissance" as we're introduced to the album's tragically lost male figure as he contemplates the purpose of his life: A renaissance, another day
To tiptoe on the balustrade
Get over you, like anything
I ever could The lyrics make you picture the unstable character teetering the literal and figurative balance between life and d**h. As he walks the rail, strings increase the intensity of the moment and female backing vocals chant in an operatic fashion, but the arrangement is just beginning. Soon we're graced with horns and a confluence of all of the sounds as Tate's voice rises masterfully above it all. As the track breaks-down, John Brandon on the trumpet hovers over the music to lull Tate back to consciousness. It's such an intricate arrangement and this is just the first track on the album! The entire collection is filled with these types of musical orgies We see our first male/female vocal back and forth on "Casanova," followed by the gift of a single in "Sonsick." This was the first taste of San Fermin that i got, hearing it on SiriusXMU...it sparked my interest in the band and it was all over from there. There's days when i wake up with a different song from San Fermin in my head, but "Sonsick" will always have that familiar feel of being the song that put em on the map. Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe of Rock Genius Album of the Year band Lucius, are the vocalists on the album, but on live appearances, San Fermin sees the gorgeous Rae Ca**idy leading the way on "Sonsick": I'll fall for you soon enough, I've resolve to love
Now I know it's just another f** cause I'm old enough
Sell lies like they're only d**, here to pick me up
I'll fall for you soon enough, oh, oh And the male female dichotomy that was born on "Casanova," gives rise to the female character's shining moment. The sensitive and broken male figure yearns for the love of this woman, but we learn a lot about her, namely that she's still daydreaming about that love and just isn't there yet. She experiences the uncertainty of a love that she's not ready for. On the album's stunning climax, "Torero," he has no other option but to reminisce on what gives him purpose and fills him with life: His younger years. The lush strings, horns, keys, drums, guitar (ahhh!), etc... guide Tate through a tale of nostalgia with memorable whimsy like: I used to be a lover
Took all my meals to bed
I used to have a mother
But I'm young, young, young
Yeah, I'm young, young, young This is Americana. It's an individual breaking down the building blocks of how we grow up, how we were once simply great and nothing else. It's the foil to his current state of longing and depression. The unpredictability of what we grow into and what we experience...How anything can hit you when you least expect it. "Torero" is incredible. It exalts the male character's almost Shakesperian struggle. There're moments where i envision tate running across the stage, up a step and sings to the heavens "Please take me to San Fermin!" with so much pa**ion and emotion
Ludwig-Leone has picked a splendid cast to support this effort. We get lovely interludes at just about every other track, which are like a musical breath and intro into the next act of a play. Setting us up for ridiculous breakdowns like on "The Count," where the shining star is Stephen Chen on the saxophone (yes, there's a saxophone too.)
The docile lament on "Oh Darling" is just the sweetest thing i've heard all year. Both male and female vocals show such couth in their approach with each other as the story begins to conclude and their fate is reinforced Oh, darling, I've been so miserable
I can't describe
Oh, darling, don't be difficult
I can't abide
Oh, darling, fightning's so miserable
A lover's lie
Oh, darling, don't be radical
I can't abide There's not much he can do anymore, but he's experienced an intense process of self-actualization via the tough-skinned woman's words. He finally begins to spread his wings on the grandiose "Daedalus (What We Have)" and lets out a last dying gasp of hope for this love while she seems ambivalent to the emotions that perhaps she's starting to feel too. It's almost as if she knows that this could indeed be beautiful, but she doesn't have it in her to do justice to this raw and beautiful human nature. It creates doubt in us, the listener and we wonder whether this is heading for a happy ending or not?
Much like the rest of the album, "Daedalus" is a stunning work of art. The vocal layers and complexity of merging sounds is so meticulous. In true Hemingway fashion though, the characters are on a path that can't be reconciled. The emotions meet numerous times, but the forces are more powerful that our subjects. You love and understand these characters through the stories and come to realize, that this is the most unique production of the year. It's an epic love story that pays homage to the greats. It's the true expression of the human condition (art). The sky is the limit for this band. Ludwig-Leone's brainchild thrives on not just masterful composition and arrangements, but on the talent and openness of it's stars and players....all 23 of them. THIS is San Fermin
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To listen to any of the albums on our countdown, check out our Spotify playlist here
Peep the archives of all of the albums reviewed up to this point
#2 is due up tomorrow!!