Review Summary: Fractured folk from members of The Great Lake Swimmers, Siskiyou is a solid debut that could have benefited from better sequencing.
The Siskiyou National Forest is an area in Southern Oregon, right near the California border. It's an area of notoriety for having the world's only Bigfoot trap. The trap was build in 1974, and at this point is abandoned and deteriorating, with nobody to maintain it. This fact is a pretty obvious reason for the album cover, which features a sorrowful Bigfoot colored brightly. The current state of the Bigfoot trap, however, seems a better descriptor for the music: abandoned and deteriorating.
Not that that's a bad thing. The group isn't far musically from lead singer/songwriter Colin Huebert's old band, the Great Lake Swimmers. However, it's decidedly less-polished. Not as maintained. Which is quite fitting for the music the album contains. On their website, it says the album was recorded in stairwells, bathrooms, hotel rooms, and various other places inspiration struck within the Vancouver area. This gives the album a loose, on-the-fly feel that's its biggest asset as well as its biggest problem.
The album opens with "Funeral Song", which isn't nearly as depressing as the name indicates. That isn't to say that it's a spiritual cousin to "Walking On Sunshine" or anything, but it could have been way bleaker given the genre/song title. It starts off with a slow acoustic strum, building into the chorus, which features warped backing vocals and a castanet. It's a song that starts samey and turns rather unique by the mid-point. Huebert's vocals aren't unique, but fit the song nicely. The next song, "Everything I Have", is the album highlight. It's fantastic, and had they made a whole album of songs like this it'd be a year-end list album. Right off the bat, it's much louder than the opener. Huebert's vocals are ragged, like he's been eating asbestos, and it's the only song on the album which he sings like this. The chugging melody is complimented by horns holding the song together in the background.
It's followed by two very gorgeous folk songs, "Hold It In" and "Pull It Away". "Hold It In" is a solid love song, standing in stark contrast to "Everything I Have". "Pull It Away" brings in some piano, and we follow up the love song with a song of heartbreak. It would be almost a jarring effect if the two songs weren't so musically similar. After that, we hit "It's All Going To End", which is much more upbeat in tone. The layering of vocals and some more castanet make for a fun song, albeit with some dark lyrics. "Useless Anymore" follows, and it's a short :48 second song. It's really great, and makes you wish it were longer.
However, here's where things start to falter. After this interlude, you never get that feeling again. No song leaves you wishing it were longer, or wanting more. It's not to say the songs are bad, but they start to blend, which isn't a problem in the front half. The interlude is followed by the worst song on the album "This Land", which feels much longer than its 3:37 run time. Things look up again on "Never Ever Ever Ever Again", which is solid and includes some interesting ideas that make the song not such a slog to listen to...which is something "This Land" can't claim. But it isn't enough to reclaim the head of steam the front half had built. Then we get two songs that clock in at just over a minute, and don't really sound all that different. Again, it isn't that they're bad--they're actually very pretty--but fatigue is starting to set in at this point. After that we hit the albums longest song, the 7:40 "Big Sur", which could have used some of the castanet, backing vocals, anything that made the earlier tracks stand out. It's saved by a solid final two minutes though, when the song completely switched gears. Finally, the 4-track recorded, completely un-retouched closer "Berevity and Insult" is a nice note to end the album on.
All in all, it's a solid debut, and really worth a look and a recommendation. If only they had paced it differently. I was convinced I'd found a top 20 album until the second half came. Had they placed "Everything I Have" in the middle, or closer to the end, it'd solve most of the album's pacing issues, and make it an easy 4. A few more adjustments and you'd have a 4.5. Much like the Bigfoot trap, the album just needs some maintenance. That said, it's a promising album that shows great potential, and I will be following this band closely to see what they do next.
You can stream the whole album on their webpage, right here:
http://siskiyouband.com/listen/, which also features their cover of S&G's "El Condor Pasa", and is a pretty excellent cover.
