Album Review: Gold Leaves – The Ornament
Rating: 8.9/10
From the dust of Arthur & Yu arises the vivid splendor of Gold Leaves, the project coined and promoted by the now autonomous talent Grant Olsen. As he steps further from the half of him tied to his former duo, the chagrin of life spills forth into The Ornament much like a drain corralling bodies of water from all around.
The tale of this nine-track folk album stems from Olsen’s personal journey. The compilation of potential songs started over four years ago and took him into married life, around the world and through new beginnings along with losing loved ones. What emerged was a stone-set statement about meaning over excess. As Olsen put it, “I kept scrapping music because I wanted to make some kind of grand statement.” In a manner of simplicity, each track digs at the next in a smoothly transitioned fashion.
The progression of tracks on The Ornament leads from casual observation to the depths of a heavy heart, capturing a sad longing at its deepest points as Olsen’s lyrics and some well-spaced bass lines confirm this emotion. Perhaps Olsen’s strongest display of selfless thinking comes in “Cruel & Kind” as he sings “I will be a part of all that I leave at any given time”. By stepping back and noticing his humanity’s connection to everything around him, he utters lyrics so purely presented that odes or angst-drive soliloquies seem mundane.
While his lyrics provided the supporting pillar for this 37-minute album, Olsen collaborated with co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Jason Quever (Papercuts), Ben McConnell (Beach House’s Devotion, Au Revoir Simone’s Still Night, Still Light), Thao Nguyen (The Get Down Stay Down), Amy Blaschke and fellow members of The Moondoggies, who also share Hardly Art as their label. Clearly this album was hardly a one-man show as each artist maintained the vision of a subtle background rather than a drowning instrumental collision.
To be short, the album is the best folk album since Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut in 2008. A nearly flawless transition between tracks, the talent-imposed spacing between the various elements and the lyrics with philosophical meaning set the stage for what should be a landmark on the indie music scene. The only drawbacks might be the power of the instruments in the recording as they could be more up front and the stand-alone factor for a track or two, yet as the vision of the album was geared towards the meaning (lyrics), this is easily overlooked. I’ll be awaiting the release on vinyl as this will be one to turn the treble up on.
For more on Gold Leaves, head to the Facebook or Hardly Art pages. The Ornament is scheduled to hit the streets on August 16.
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