2.13.2012

River Whyless :: "Cedar Dream Part II"

A cedar dream must mean a great deal more if you live close to the woods. It is something pastoral, nature cast as wild but ultimately tameable behind lyrics like, "And where will I sleep, if the trees we felled never stand as beams." This, we assume, the metaphorical house to be built with another among the pines and the birches. And images like these offer an update to the themes of heartbroken pop like the Decemberists' "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect", narratives about building toward some unreachable and unrequited construction. River Whyless, a pleasant folk-outfit from Boone, North Carolina, traffic these pathways with ease, alternating male and female vocals with crushing aplomb. The story and melody unfold together, groupings of strings and acoustic guitar colliding with vocals, alone and together, a house, for the moment, left unfinished in the wild.

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