Graig Markel provides wonderfully layered down tempo pop, rich with slide guitars, violins and chiming melodies on his new album “Via Novella”. The inventiveness of the instrumentation helps avoid the usual pitfalls of down tempo pop. The lush soundscapes evoke at times the sounds of Air or Andrew Bird while being intimately unique at the same time. There are some absolutely stunning instrumentals here. “Black Mesa” (1) and “Figures in the Snow” (10) both allude to nature’s beauty in title and in sound. I hate to be redundant with the term “beauty” here, but I would use that adjective again for most of the ballads here as well, in particular the subtly electro-acoustic romp “Cascadia”. Graig Markel also has the knack to inject his songs with a certain emotional weight while nudging the song along at just the right pace, best exemplified in “Knives Drawn” (2) and “Sixes and Sevens” (5). While not flawless from start to finish, you’d be hard pressed to find a better formed diamond in the rough.
Buy Via Novella
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