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Echo Bloom recently dropped Green, a collection of folk-pop tunes with precisely textured arrangements resulting from the talents of Echo Bloom’s frontman, Kyle Evans, Aviva Jaye on keyboards and vocals, Alex Minier on bass, and Cody Rahn on drums. Green was produced by songwriter/guitarist Kevin Salem.
When Evans was in college, he took up the guitar and began writing his own songs. Later, after moving to Washington, D.C., he formed a band, called the Rosemont Family Reunion, which toured the East Coast and developed into Echo Bloom.
“I think it’s important to be ambitious. When I started this band, that was a challenge that I set for myself. I wanted to make something really beautiful, whether it’s folk music or rock music or something more experimental. The medium and the people I’ve worked with have changed, but I’ve always tried to hold on to that fundamental idea,” says Evans.
Green contains a dozen tracks. “Comet” opens the album as an easy folk-pop tune traveling on keyboards and sparkling guitars. The groove resonates with palpable pulses, as well as an exotic throb imbuing the tune with an undulating flow. “The Duke” features rumbling polyrhythmic percussion and dark, dirty guitars. There’s a trembling southern swamp feel to the tune, drawling and cogent.
“Fire” is another strong tune, riding emerging aching colors from the keyboards and a crisp, mellow groove. Twangy guitars give the tune a country flavor, a drifting SoCal soft energy infectious with cool harmonics. “Love & Superglue” thrums with opaque guitar chords reverberating with subdued intensity, as Evans’ affluent tones glide overhead.
One of my personal favorites is “Grand Marquis,” a smooth and easy country-pop tune with glistening, melodious guitars and a ripe essence, as if aged to perfection.
All 12 tunes have much to offer. The melodies flow dreamy and smooth, while the rhythmic components bubble and simmer with just the right amount of buff energy. Evans’ voice, with its easy sonority and soft timbres, is yummy to listen to.
Green delivers eloquent lyrics, along with generous doses of subliminal sonic flashes, making it one of the better folk-pop albums I’ve heard in quite some time.
