Anathallo is a band whose name I have heard and seen in print for the past couple years but I had never taken the time to give them a full listen. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have liked them too much a couple years ago, but when I finally gave in and checked out their latest release Canopy Glow, I was instantly hooked. The band hails from Chicago by way of Michigan. They’ve been releasing music for quite a few years now but Canopy Glow is only their second proper full length and their first album for Anticon Records. The band’s seven members are quite an ambitious bunch, incorporating a wide range of instruments beyond the standard guitar, drums and bass which include all sorts of strings, keys and horns and various percussion instruments. The result is a ten song album that feels a little like floating. It’s very relaxed but with some interesting song structures that veer away from the standard verse-chorus-verse but are not devoid of memorable hooks. The vocal interplay between Matt Joynt and Erica Froman works quite nicely especially on songs like “Italo” and the orchestral “Sleeping Torpor.” I think they are vocally at their best on the opener, “Noni’s Field” which finds Joynt hitting the high registers for one of the most memorable melodies on the record. Canopy Glow is a true gem in a music scene where so many songs seem to come from a place of anger. It’s like you almost can’t help but smile when listening to it.Today’s song is easily the centerpiece of the album. “The River” is a fantastic song that incorporates everything that is great about Anathallo from the alliterative wordplay to the meshing of the instrumentation. The lyrics are a semi-fictional story about getting swept away by a river and it’s used a metaphor for life and kind of going with the flow so to speak. Of course they say it better than I could so just listen.Anathallo - "The River"
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