The Autumn Leaves - Long Lost Friends

Hello Folks,

Well, Minnesota is once again a wynter wonderland, this season never dies easy here. This morning I woke up and drove to get our brand new cd from the pressing plant, it’s titled "Long Lost Friend" and I’m really proud of it. It was produced in the northwoods by Gary Burger of the legendary band called The Monks. This is the first cd to only feature four band members (the first two cd’s had three drummers and two bass players each) and everyone did an amazing job.
Take Care,David

The Leaves' new album, "Long Lost Friend" should indeed sound like a long lost friend to fans of such 80's hush-rock bands as The Church, The Go-Betweens, and The Feelies. Band leader David Beckey and his team also pull off some nice Byrds-style paisley-electric fok, especially on the sweetly harmonized "In The Morning."-CR,

(from vita.mn, april 17th, 2008)

It's been six years since local songwriter David Beckey's Autumn Leaves came out with a new album, but its sound has hardly grown stale in the meantime-the gently psychedelic, catchy take on 60's Britpop is as vintage as a fine cabernet. The lineup on the new Long Lost Friend is a perfect storm of Minneapolis retro-mod aficianados, including The Conquerors' Keith Patterson and Steve Kent plus guitarist Jon Hunt, and is produced by Gary Burger of '60's garage-rock legends The Monks. Friend moves mainly in a mellow Kinks/Nick Drake vein, branching out for Beckey's surf-washed "Next To Me," two Byrdsian numbers from Hunt, and a cover of late-'60s English combo The Mirage's "You Can't Be Serious," delivered in Patterson's patentable growl.

(From The Onion-AV Club, Volume 44, Number 16, April 17, 2008


The new album from the Leaves is simply unbelievable! And it continues the tradition of interesting artwork with a brilliant art noveau sleeve. In fact, it's as good as their first album which is already a classic in my book. Treats and Treasures had some real stand-outs in "When I Close My Eyes", "The Summer's Gone" etc, and although nothing on Long Lost Friend reaches quite the same heights, the lows are nonexistent. On the whole, the music is a notch softer and leans more towards the jangle end of the folk rock spectrum, where the debut had a bit more of a garage punch and some psychedelic flourishes. I'm not kidding when I say this is the best janglepop since East Village and has as justified a claim to the Best Album of the Year So Far title as The Airfields' cd. There's more Rickenbacker and acoustic 12-string in these 36 minutes than what is officially healthy!

The record leads off with "Lighthouse" (that you can hear on MySpace) - an instant classic and one of David Beckey's finest compositions. Guitarist Jon Hunt (almost John Hunt's namesake!) has contributed the next one called "Summer Sunshine Girl" which made for a perfect soundtrack to a cuppa coffee in a sun-drenched backyard earlier today. Reading the songwriting credits is actually rather interesting as they're just vague enough. E.g. the backwards five-second intro "Emo Texan" is credited to Yekceb (read it backwards!). If you didn't know already, you'll learn that "In the Morning" is a Bee Gees cover. Given a beautiful treatment here with harmonies and banjo-style Rickenbacker picking. And I tracked down "You Can't Be Serious" as a 1966 b-side by British pop-sike group The Mirage. That's the one song that sticks out in the set, because of its raucous vocal - I'm guessing it's Keith Patterson singing... just because he plays such a mean-looking Burns Bison bass! "Wintertyme Joy" is the only psychedelic song this time around and can also be found on MySpace, along with the laidback title-track. "Make My Move" doesn't exactly suffer from having almost the same melody as "The Rollercoaster Ride" by Belle & Sebastian, and "Back to Me" has a very Felty guitar line (including a solo that even Lawrence ought to dig). The closing track "Bonfire In the Sand" connects with the heathen theme of the artwork, thanks to some freaky vocals and chuckling goblins.

That's almost all the tracks and they all deserve to be mentioned, honestly, because even the ones I left out are brilliant. More brilliant American pop is on If Things Were Perfect, in the shape of a rare Honeybunch flexi track.

(from www.heavenisabove.blogspot.com )

I love The Autumn leaves ... and your blog too !!!

I did not know that TALs had another CD out until I saw it in yout blog today. I am going to order a (physical) copy of that wonderful CD right now!

Thanks

-------------http://federicapulladixit.blogspot.com/

Federica Pulla said...