Radical Face
The Family Tree: The Leaves
stream until March 25
Radical Face is the world of Jacksonville, Fla. musician, Ben Cooper and the "Family Tree" albums are his latest creative challenge. The most recent instalment, The Family Tree: The Leaves, picks up where the first two records The Family Tree: The Roots (2011) and The Family Tree: The Branches (2013) left off.
The trilogy came out of Cooper's desire to tell the story of his family using music instead of writing a novel. While the songs are all connected and intertwined, The Leaves works well and stands solidly on its own as an album.
"The first record, The Roots, starts the smallest," Cooper says in a press release.
"The lyrics were all verbal storytelling and it focused on small sounds, a floor tom, an acoustic guitar, and a piano. Then each record it would get more broad, and it'd expand. The second one, The Branches, was all about written letters and the third, The Leaves, is more cinematic. It's a time period of film and photographs."
While his own childhood and family experiences inform his songwriting, the album's protagonists are a supernatural 19th century family with special powers and secrets.
"It's my life, but I wrap it in fiction," he continues. "I've always been guilty of using music as a therapy. Because with music, you can take something ugly or hard and can turn it into something pretty. You can force it to become something that it never intended. Even with the saddest things, you can make them beautiful."
The Family Tree: The Leaves will be released on March 25 on Nettwerk Records. You can preorder the album here.
Tracklist
1. "Secrets (Cellar Door)"
2. "Rivers in the Dust"
3. "Everything Costs"
4. "Midnight"
5. "The Ship in Port"
6. "Photograph"
7. "Third Family Portrait"
8. "The Road to Nowhere"
9. "Old Gemini"
10. "Bad Blood"
by Judith Lynch via Electronic RSS
No comments:
Post a Comment