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$11.99 CD
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MILES BENJAMIN ANTHONY ROBINSON
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
(Say Hey)
 "Buriedfed"
"My Good Luck"
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson is the eponymous debut from the Brooklyn via Portland, Oregon songwriter whose name leaves one short of breath. The album kicks off with the heavily blog-syndicated song "Buriedfed," which after a short, double-tracked voice and guitar introduction, kicks into gear with the unmistakable drumming of Grizzly Bear's Christopher Bear, and the unmistakable and undeniably ingenious production qualities of Grizzly Bear's Christopher Taylor -- as sensitive and robust as all of his other production efforts (e.g. Grizzly Bear's Yellow House, Dirty Projectors Rise Above). "Buriedfed" is thematically based on the line "I'm done singing songs about the inside," and from there, the album takes off through an emotionally kaleidoscopic vision of what it is to be one man in a big ol' world, nearly contradicting his initial plea to sing a different kind of song. Rather, from epic piano ballads ("Above the Sun") to hard rocking anthems ("Woodfriend"), and everything in between, Miles bears a lot of what's inside, through perceptive portraits of his relationship to what is outside. The album's dynamics form a continuous give and take between the harrowed confessions and contemplations of solitary reflection and the communal feeling of contribution (to name a few prominent elements of group dynamics: rousing vocal choruses, the outgoing thrust of electric guitars, Chris Bear's enigmatic percussion, and for Chris Taylor a mix of bass, woodwinds, and glockenspiel, not to mention his detrimentally beautiful arrangements/production, and additional support from third Grizzly man Daniel Rossen, who along with TV On the Radio's Kyp Malone, rounds out the cast of the album).
Personal interjections intersect with the impressive weight of the band, both paths carrying each other to great, great heights. Comparisons lead to many artists who knock out singular visions through the guise of a rock band (Sparklehorse, Smog, Destroyer, etc.), in their push and pull of individual/collaborative states of mind. But the most apparent relative is another "one-man band," Conor "Bright Eyes" Oberst, whose salty and worn intonation is traceable in Mile's delivery, both sonically (that voice!) and thematically, through embittered but tangible depictions of emotional debt and forlorn possibility. Emotional territory aside, Miles' also joins the ranks of contemporary groups embracing classically rock and roll stylings, with the other ear fixed for the uncanny (which one could say that Grizzly Bear themselves have done masterfully). The vocal harmonies, chunky guitars, soaring solos, and plodding beats tussling with the esoteric production aesthetics of 2008, shows, sort of, that man still struggles with the same issues, as far as a rock song can carry them, yet they are staggeringly different in their execution. Of course, both lyrically and structurally, the record is very much about a modern situation -- Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, along with the dense group affair that that makes for his band, have created one of the most emotionally and musically evocative and compelling records of the year, and it is a catharsis either way you slice it. [JW] |
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