Monday , March 18 2024
Timber
Photo Credit: Wes Frazier

Music Review: Timber – ‘The Family’

Alabama’s Americana/dream pop duo Timber recently dropped a new album on Cornelius Chapel Records, called The Family.

Timber is made up of Janet Simpson and Will Stewart, who got together when Stewart was working with his country-soul band Willie and the Giant in Nashville, Tennessee. Stewart decided to enhance his songs with keyboards and vocals. Simpson, who had worked with Wooden Wand, Delicate Cutters, and Teen Getaway, was mentioned as a possibility. Preparing to leave for Europe with Wooden Wand, Simpson had a small window to get to the studio and contribute her talents.

Later on, Stewart contacted Simpson to gauge her temperature on writing together. As their musical chemistry developed, they put together a number of songs resulting in the duo’s self-titled debut EP. Since then the musical bond between the two has intensified, leading to The Family.

The Family encompasses eight tracks, starting with “Burying Ground,” a gentle Americana tune with creamy textures and gorgeous vocal harmonies. Simpson’s voice evokes tantalizing, almost elusive, colors of haunting longing.

The best tracks on the album include “Sunstroke,” a drifting, oozing prog-rock number reminiscent of Pink Floyd. The flow of the music undulates on soft emerging tones, as shimmering guitars provide luminous dimension. “Shuttlecock” is a mellow Americana tune flavored with So-Cal soft rock expansiveness. The rhythm of the song trembles with low-level infectious momentum, a bit like Fleetwood Mac’s more indulgent tunes.

“Errant Oblivion” features a measured serenity atop a migrant prog-rock ambience, gliding on mystical sonic water colors. The overall feel of the song causes delicious sensations to ripple through the listener’s diaphragm. Rather than triggering a subtle tightening within, it throws a mandala of wavering pigmented lights forming a velvety soundscape.

With The Family, Timber delivers imaginative, visibly supple coloration and ozone-like misty resonance. The Family is marvelously put together.

Follow Timber on timber-music.com and Facebook.

About Randall Radic

Left Coast author and writer. Author of numerous true crime books written under the pen-name of John Lee Brook. Former music contributor at Huff Post.

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