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Elly Roberts reviews

The Young Republic: 12 Tales From Winter City

Distributed by
End Of The Road Records

Released: January 2008

Rating: 8/10

Vote and comment on this album:

Boston eight-piece make their debut. It’s nice too.

A super collection of country-tinged off-radar pop, 12 Tales incorporates influences such as classical (Mozart/Beethoven) sweeping string arrangements to the mid-60s Lennon and Wilson (Beach Boys) palate, through to the indie scene of say Belle And Sebastian and Camera Obscura. Thrown into the mix, there’s Folk and Bluegrass which all sit neatly next to each other, some feat considering the stylistic direction it tends to wander.

Because they’ve all studied music, they bring together differing influences. Young Republic are college students who been gathering a considerable live fanbase, selling music on CDRs at gigs, with many of those finally put together here. The album’s been recorded in all manner of places like an old church, bedrooms and classrooms, but you’d never think so as the resulting product is excellent.

Just about every track is gorgeous, even the rockier ones have a warmth to them like opener Girl In A Tree, and Paper Ships. Their Bluegrass liking shines through on the fiddle-lead Excuses To See Young accompanied by some sweet girlie backups, segued by the country shuffle of Girl From The Country States, where again, the fiddle boosts the country musical colours, and splashes of brass that make a significant impact.

Young Republic aren’t reliant on multiple instrumentation to make an impression however, as the stripped back Real Love drifts nicely with vocal and acoustic guitar, until he arrival of flute and violin, giving the ballad some wonderful textures. They round-off with a really gorgeous Country/Bluegrass swinger: piano, fiddle, drum shuffles, brass all competing for their place.

File under: New slant on Americana. Check it out.

Weblinks: theyoungrepublic.net / endoftheroadrecords.com

The full list of tracks included are :

1. Girl In A Tree 2. Modern Plays 3. Excuses To See You 4. Girl From The Northern States 5. Everybody Look Better In Black And White 6. She’s Not Waiting Here This Time 7. She Comes And Goes 8. Real Love (at the end) 9. Paper Ships 10. When I See Your Eyes I Swear To God That Worlds Collide 11. Blue Skies 12. Goodbye Town

Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.

As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.

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