The Album Leaf: A Chorus of Storytellers

While a gulf apart in terms of actual sound, Jimmy Lavalle's project The Album Leaf has walked a very similar path to that of Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst.

Both started their projects cooped up in dark and dusty basements and attic, whispering all their darkest yearnings into a humble home-recording device by themselves. Over time though, both grew as musicians and gradually let others in on their creation, leading to the full-band delights of Bright Eyes' album Lifted, and now The Albums Leaf's A Chorus of Storytellers.

For this record, writer-in-chief and producer Lavalle brought in his live touring band to record their instruments together, rather than gradually moulding the tapestry himself through reams of overdubs. The effect, of course, is noticeable through a more playful and warm vibe which pulses through the album's blood. Instead of the lo-fi nature of TAL's early work, this is an album which can not only speckle the room lightly with splashes of eloquence, but also pummel the walls with magnificence if need be.

Not that The Album Leaf have turned into your typical crescendo-loving post-rock outfit. No, the genre is certainly not applicable to the Californian collective. This falls very much on the lighter side of the (semi-)instrumental spectrum. There are a few crossovers, sure. Opening track "Perro" commences with subdued harmonic-tones paired with the sound of children talking through a broken, distorted speaker as monastic chants fill the backdrop.

Other than that though, A Chorus of Storytellers is more reminiscent of the likes of God is An Astronaut, or perhaps Before the Dawn-era M83, stripped of their shoegaze influence.

The wise step is made on the part of The Album Leaf to make a semi-instrumental album. It probably works out around 60/40 in favour of instrumental song, yet the ones with lyrics do add a pleasing anchor to the experience. "There is a Wind", "Falling From the Sun", "We Are" and "Almost There" are perhaps the predominant ones of these. In all of these the band make no comprises on behalf of the vocalist, the music underpinning it is still just as lush, still contains the same level of complexity and fiercely preserves its free-form state, unwilling to be crushed into easily-measured bars and riffs.

The nigh-on perfect placement of the vocal-led tracks throughout the album really boost its appeal between clawing at your intellect and roping in your emotional response. Somewhere between the worlds of post-rock, electro and shoegaze, The Album Leaf found a formula that is all of them and none of them.

"Until the Last" is a flawless example of this multi-lingual approach. Using the first part of the song to present neoclassicism, rock and electro independently, they then combine all of these forces for the final climax.

How can adoration not be on the cards for such a wonderfully understated, yet richly-textured approach to music.