Grand Archives The Grand Archives 2008 Band Of Horses WITH REVIEWS

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Mat Brooke bowed out of Band of Horses in 2006, bringing his 11-year run with the various members of Carissa's Wierd to a close. Left to his own devices for the first time since 1995, Brooke replaced the crescendos and ringing guitars of Band of Horses with the sun-baked sounds of his follow-up project, Grand Archives. The new band is still indebted to the West Coast, but while BOH's Everything All the Time took its cues from Neil Young and Brian Wilson, Grand Archives tips a hat to David Crosby and the Mamas & the Papas. "A Setting Sun" bounces with pedal steel guitar riffs and a breezy chorus, while cameos from violinist Sarah Standord and the soft-voiced Jenn Ghetto (Brooke's co-founder in Carissa's Wierd) turn "Swan Matches" into a gauzy rainy-day ballad. The group's strongest asset is its vocal strength, with four of the five members offering up their voices in thick harmony. Taken alone, Brooke's singing is perhaps a bit too smooth, his tone straightforward and his passion understated. Adding harmonies from Curtis Hall, Ron Lewis, and Jeff Montano helps to thicken the melody, and Grand Archives revolves around the strong singalong hooks that turn this debut into a soft rock record for the indie crowd. The only misstep is "The Crime Window," whose heavy-handed melodies are shouted by multiple bandmates in a manner that's meant to be exuberant, but instead comes across as out of place and somewhat jarring. It's a song that Arcade Fire or Broken Social Scene could really tear into, but Grand Archives sound much better when they're belying their name, sacrificing the grand for the warmly intimate.

- allmusic.com

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When The Grand Archives put out their 4 song demo last year, everyone jumped all over it (myself included). The fact that Mat Brooke was a one time member of Band of Horses helped, but for me it was the fact he was a part of the all too underrated Carissa's Wierd. Now, I'm not going to type out a wiki entry about the greatness of the band - Charles over at Heartache with Hardwork already did - but you should know they were a fantastic band.

The Grand Archives demos showed an insane amount of potential, so we all waited on baited breath for the official release on Subpop. Well, Feb. 19th is fast approaching and the self-titled LP more than delivers. The band really made a smart decision by opening with Torn Blue Foam Couch. Even in demo form, the song is a soaring anthem with a terrific energy and harmonies, but at points the new version is simply breath taking and shows that the time the took to flesh out the songs was well worth it. The shocking horns that grab your ear, the pleasant piano in the distance… all of the elements work.

Then the band switches pace with the beautiful, orchestral Miniature Birds. Dueling horns, addictive whistling and a nice strummed acoustic drive this song into your cerebral cortex and quickly cement the fact this band is more than four great songs. That should be obvious, as Subpop isn't in the habit of signing bands that have only written writing four songs and putting them on a CD-R, but this record really hammers home the point. Over the course of the 11-song LP, Brooke and his band use ballads, anthems, alt-country, folk, dub (on the nice instrumental Breezy No Breezy) and pop to keep the album moving forward.

The rough edge of the demos was terrific, but the polished sounds and diverse instrumentation really help this band stand out. In a time where people think overwhelming the listener with layer after layer, The Grand Archives manage to add just the right amount at just the right time. The songs maintain a desolate, open feel with sounds creeping in and out nicely. The new version of George Kaminsky adds piano, steal, chimes/triangle and harmonica but the song is actually incredibly spare.

The thing that really grabbed my attention after several listens is the oddly named Louis Riel. For all you non-Canadians out there, Riel is one of Canada's favorite martyrs and he is considered the father of Manitoba (which up to now, you might have thought was Jon K. Samson). In a twist of irony, The Grand Archives created one of their most summery sing-alongs in his name and if you didn't know the back story, you'd probably not even think twice when the song ends with the beautiful refrain… hanging all alone. Note: He was hanged for his part in leading the Northwest Rebellion.

- herohill.com

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I'll give this to Sub Pop: They certainly know what's in their wheelhouse. The mitosis of the Band of Horses stem cell resulted in the more streamlined and sedate Cease to Begin and Mat Brooke's Grand Archives...a band that sounds like they'd end up on the label any damn way. Or, how about this: The band that pulls off what the Elected were supposed to, a mixture of hayseed indie, bashful singer-songwriter comedowns, and sunny, orchestral pop.

Grand Archives won't have the same impact of either Horses record, since it's more about hooks than heft and certainly less scrutable in topicality. But after hearing "Torn Blue Foam Couch" spiral endlessly upward, the "Bungalow Bill"-quoting harmonica/whistle riff of "Miniature Birds", or the playful jig in the chorus of "A Setting Sun," you begin to suspect the root of Cease to Begin's occasional dourness. Brooke did manage to salvage a sense for the anthemic, although it isn't quite as barnstorming-- "Swan Matches" and "Index Moon" come girded by strong, but slow-evolving melodies that reveal themselves as stop-motion lighter wavers.

Brooke's c.v. might be the main draw for rubberneckers here, but Grand Archives are far from a plug'n'play set-up; Brooke's slight voice, more airy than airborne gets plenty of help in from his backing band (which includes Carissa's Wierd's Jenn Ghetto and Ghost Stories), all of whom contribute strong vocals. "Sleepdriving", the album standout, is a monument of gauze, slowly evolving harmonies lingering before the coda breaks into a triumphant string uplift straight from Sigur Ros. While it's tempting to lump them into the ever-increasing pile of 70s California daytrippers, there's actually more forensic evidence of Summerteeth in the perfectly laconic horns on "Miniature Birds" and mandolins of brief closer "Orange Juice".

The melodica instrumental "Breezy No Breezy" is a bit of trifle, but "The Crime Window" is the only real clunker on Grand Archives-- and it's a doozy. Relentlessly loud with power chords, bleating horns, and an unbecoming/unconvincing shoutiness, "Crime Window" shows the band trying to traverse the entirety of Montreal in four minutes, and by comparison, Neon Bible is a case study of subtlety. At the very least, the recording sessions for "Crime Window" must've been a blast, a feeling you get from just about everything else here. The insularity of Cease to Begin certainly has its merits, and it's pointless to argue about who comes out on top here, but the way Grand Archives come forth with arms outsretched results in a debut that likely exceeds most expectations.

7.8/10

- pitchforkmedia.com

Artist/Band: Grand Archives
Album: The Grand Archives
Release Date: 2008
Genre: Altrock, Altfolk, FolkRock
Bitrate: VBR --alt-preset extreme