Review Summary: It's alive!
Living Thing feels alive. The latest from Portland, Oregon singer-songwriter Anna Tivel has plenty to recommend it in strictly musical terms, resplendent as it is with lovely melodies, beautiful vocals, and rich lyricism which manages to be both deep and sentimental, but more than any of that, the record possesses a vibrant sense of ineffable aural magic. Truth be told, it’s that kind of sorcery which tends to elevate the best indie folk releases - not easy to pin down, but your ears (and your heart) will know when you stumble across it. Indeed, I haven’t heard many albums in recent years which prove this immersive and enrapturing. The opening run of songs is simply sublime (“Silver Flame” and “Bluebird” in particular, good lord!), and if the album’s only (limited) flaw is a mild slackening in its second half, closer “Gold Web” sticks the landing with its more lo-fi and naturalistic approach. It might be a hackneyed cliche to say that the best records create their own world for the listener, but that’s certainly how I feel about
Living Thing. Better yet, that world is awfully appealing - like a rainy day in which you’re warm and dry by the fire, the deluge only a gentle patter on the windowpane. In short, pretty cozy, and quite fitting for a remarkable album which manages to elevate simple pleasures into transcendence.
