Review Summary: A very pleasant piano based singer-songwriter album with enough flair to hold the listener's attention
Agnes Obel's debut album
Philharmonics has a very simple cover; it’s a picture of her in a striped shirt looking straight into the camara. This is in strong contrast with her later cover art, which have a more artistically advanced look.
Aventine and
Myopia feature more dark and mysterious pictures of her, while
Citizen of Glass has that fancy reflection in glass effect going on. It’s a good representation of her work as most of
Philharmonics music is quite straightforward and her later work would show her experimenting more with complicated textures and unique vocal techniques.
The simpleness that her debut presents, however, is of an elegant beauty. The often mainly piano-based songs present a comfortableness that is always pleasant to the ear. While the piano usually offers the backbone to the songs, there are other instruments too - mainly cello, but also acoustic guitar and harp – which are used to compliment the piano melodies. One of the best instrumental embellishments can be heard in ‘Beast’ where the perky harp makes the song stand out very well from the rest. Obel is careful not to overwhelm the listener though, and the instrumental additions never overrule the key piano focus that this album is built on.
Her approach to a straightforward yet affective performance is best shown on the John Cale cover ‘Close Watch’, with a piano melody of only a few notes that enables the listener to focus more strongly on the vulnerable lyrics. There’s little distraction when Obel softly sings “Because there’s nothing I can do ‘cause I can’t live without you”, making the message all the more effective. It’s an album that is confident in its uncomplicatedness and consistently presents the listener with pretty piano melodies that are nice to the ear. This extends to the vocal performance too, which lacks the more complicated techniques of her later work. This is something that mostly works in its favour, as its straightforwardness fits really well with the comfortable atmosphere Obel's debut creates.
Philharmonics is by extension of this approach Obel’s least diverse work. Luckily, it manages to avoid being uninteresting by giving just enough moments that capture the listener’s attention. The chorus of ‘Avenue’, for example, soars throughout the song and presents one of the album’s grandest moments. Or, look at the bright piano melody of the closer ‘On Powdered Ground’, which represents the feeling of light snowfall that Obel is singing about so well. What also strengthens the album’s memorability is the really solid song writing. The obvious example is her breakthrough song ‘Riverside’, with its instantly memorable piano melody and its great, dreamy chorus. It combines the great qualities of both being able to immediately capture the listener’s attention, and having high replayability. Needless to say it remains as one of her best songs to this day.
While Obel’s later work would see her make more sonically compelling music,
Philharmonics is perhaps even more effective at delivering immediately satisfying, affectionate messages and great, approachable songs. It’s not an album that seems to care about challenging or amazing the listener, but it is a consistently pleasant listen. It’s a very effective album at setting a pleasurable, relaxing mood that is perfect for gentle early morning wake-ups or winding down after a hard day in the evening. Sometimes that is all you need.
