In Stephen Chbosky's coming of age novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, he describes feeling "infinite" as driving fast through a tunnel while listening to Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" and letting out joyous screams. A feeling so happy that you might be able live forever, or die in that moment fulfilled. While Stevie Nix's melancholy crooning doesn't immediately bring to mind the sheer joy associated with feeling "infinite," Anathallo's latest album, "Canopy Glow" could be the soundtrack for infinity.
The 7 member ensemble are Chicago transplants by way of a little, college town called Mt. Pleasant in central Michigan. Founded by Matthew Joynt in 2000, Anathallo saw its beginnings in Grand Rapids coffee shops and other small venues, eventually spreading their multi-instrumental, story-telling anthems throughout the entire country. In 2006 Anathallo released its first full-length album, "Floating World", to much critical acclaim and much commentary on their use of Glockenspiels. "Floating World" wielded invitations to Coachella and Lollapalooza in 2006 and spurred the group to join us permanently in the Windy City in 2007. Since moving to Chicago the band has booked European and Japanese tours and are anticipating the release of their second album, the aforementioned "Canopy Glow."
Oft compared to Sufjan Stevens and The Arcade fire, the folk-pop of Anathallo is unique in its intellect. "Canopy Glow" finds the band exploring humanity's role in nature, animalism, and ceremony. The septuplet's whimsical aesthetic and barrage of ancillary percussion brings you to the fields to gaze at the "Northern Lights" in a velvet black night, it lets you hear the trickling brook in "The River," and feel the weight of hibernation on "Sleeping Torpor." Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Anathallo's sophomore effort is its devotion to the namesake of the band, a Greek word meaning "to renew, refresh or bloom again." Tracks such as "Tower of Babel," "Cafetorium," and "Noni's Field" speak to death, baptism, and rebirth through optimistic voices, upbeat horns, and dancing strings.
As we look to the beginning of another holiday season and the end of another year; as we witness the fading of any trace of summer in Chicago and surrender to the enveloping darkness of winter, Anathallo's "Canopy Glow" meets us at the crux and reminds us that death and rebirth are unavoidable aspects of nature's un-ending cycle. It reminds us that we can run East to our beaches on a dark night, when the horizon can only be found where the sand meets the water and feel the sheer joy of being infinite.
"Canopy Glow" will be released through Anticon Records on November 18th.
(published on 11/18/08 at www.thedelimagazine.com/chicago)
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