Quaint, quiet and quirky is the name of the game on ‘New Tales’, the debut album from Houston duo, Papermoons. Filled with atmospheric sentiment, lulled guitar lines and oh so gentle vocals, it’s not particularly your bog-standard Punktastic submission but that’s not to say you need to turn your ears away in disgust.
The band description of ‘minimalist, indie and experimental’ is apt enough. Across 10 tracks Papermoons manages to tinker with a diminutive sound, sometimes stripped to the bones, sometimes padded with a little bit extra, that calmly (and that really is the best word to describe this release) leads you by the hand through the woods. There’s the odd moment that is reminiscent of really (really) slow Jimmy Eat World (“Live Right”) or early Foo Fighters (“Front Porch”). “Honesty” sounds as though it’s come straight from the film ‘The Princess Bride’, whilst there’s even a little bit of a luau feel to “Follow the Sun”. Like I say, quirky.
Whilst the idiosyncratic moments make for pleasurable enough listening, the main impediment to the album as a whole is the pace. Everything is so methodical (which is by no means a bad thing) that it just seems to one-dimensionally amble along, so much so that you wonder what things would be like if the band really went for it. There’s obviously a personal connection here between musician and material but you can’t help but long for an emotional blow-out (happy or sad, angry or heartbroken, it doesn’t matter) to infuse a little energy into proceedings. Still, the gentle and calming style does work and means that the music tends to do the talking for itself.
Overall, ‘New Tales’ is more intriguing than remarkable. It’s impressive and enjoyable enough and certainly makes a break from the norm. It’s a piece of well constructed tranquil work. In short, it’s simple but pleasant acoustic guitar music.
Alex