In addition to Fleet Foxes, this album reminds me a little bit about Bon Iver. But where Bon Iver started adding electronic instruments to his delicate folk, Night Beds sounds completely organic and beautifully natural. I hadn't listened to the band's later songs for some reason until now, even though this is a very ambitious and promising debut album. To my disappointment, the second album is filled with harder instruments and even some completely unnecessary autotune. I'm really disappointed that also this band had to ruin their perfect delicate sound with studio overload.
This debut album, in my mind, is connected to the period when I had just moved to London and I was really excited about the fact that I was able to find circles that appreciated acoustic and natural sounds at a time when in Finland, most people were obsessed by electronic music. Around this time I also discovered so much new music through independent record shops and their recommendations, as well as from Spotify's curative functions. It was around this time when I realised that there is infinite amount of good music in the world as long as you find the effort to discover it.
The album starts with pure vocals of the frontman Winston Yellen in the song Faithful Heights. His voice alone is enough to give the shivers down my spine. The song leads into the most obvious hit song Ramona. This song has a nice rolling tempo and a full band playing beautifully relaxed melodies. This is Americana folk at its best. The contrast between fast verses and quiet middle parts is beautifully carried out. Even If We Try starts again only with Yellen's vocals, but evolves little by little into a beautiful folk song with violins and amazing vocals that remind me of Andrew Bird. 22 is filled with quiet smoothness, but there's still a rolling tempo that grows throughout the song. Borrowed Time has a country western feel to it with some amazing slide guitars. It manages to borrow the sounds of country songs without being too corny at any point. Cherry Blossoms sounds like many other modern folk songs in the 2010's. The use of sharp electronic guitar for picking creates a strange sound that is like acoustic, but with some echoey spices. Wanted You In August has some amazing piano sequences and progressive rhythms, as well as great vocal harmonies. There's even some jazziness to the song. Lost Springs brings the intensity to the band's roots again with rolling drum beat and beautiful violins. And, as always, the vocals are pure and beautiful. Was I for You is a fantastically beautiful ballad with some amazing picked acoustic guitars. This is a great example of a modern singer-songwriter heartbreak song. The album ends with hopeful sounding Americana song TENN, which rolls delicately forwards creating a sense of security.
I've never seen Night Beds music videos before. The video for Even If We Try is a real surprise. The song is so incredibly beautiful and delicate, but the video presents a drunken man who is fighting on the floor in a house party. He then leaves the party and walks home through dark roads, gets home and gets in the bath tub. I guess it is a journey to calm himself down. If you need to calm yourself down, this is probably one of the best album for it, so I guess the video makes sense even if at the first glance, it just makes you very bewildered.
It's truly a shame that the more recent songs by the band did not continue with these amazingly pure and clean sounds. The band could've been on the way to greatness, but they ruined it by experimenting and failing to keep the magic going. I'm still glad that they managed to make one as amazing album as this.
Listen to the album on Spotify.
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