To fully appreciate Holy Sons album , In The Garden, it's essential to understand Amos, first, as a songwriter. At its core, Holy Sons is a deep exploration of melody. Amos explains, "…the more focused into melody's fundamental purpose you are, the more you can directly harness the overall power of song-craft." In Holy Sons this means every lyrical hook, each guitar line and piano run stacks, builds and layers almost to the point of complete collapse. Traditional structures like chorus, verse and bridge are rendered obsolete as songs are simply songs by whatever means necessary - direct and emotional brain dumps from Amos to the listener - he takes songs where he wants, whenever he wants to. Album opener "Robbed" and "Gifted" expands from a wandering solo acoustic guitar to a fully realized exploded mantra within moments of its brooding start. "Eyes Can See Clearly" is a piano-led ballad that walks the thin line between gorgeous Surf's Up-era Beach Boys and doom-n-gloom, late-period Pink Floyd. It's the cover of Del Shannon's lost nugget "It's My Feeling,: however, that adds revealing context to the album. The directness and despair of Amos' delivery of the lyrics, "You will tell me all your pain, and I will listen and explain…" is bleak, beautiful and disarming. When he croons, "It's my feeling. It's my feeling", he twists a sixties love song into a gut-wrenching existential plea. Lyrically, the songs all work off this model. Brutal truth paired with stunning arrangements. While Amos digs deep into the 60s and 70s songwriter era for the missing blueprint, In The Garden is an undoubtedly contemporary album. While other musicians look back to ape entire songs or sounds as a template, Amos manages to adopt the authentic mindset of a 60s era artist. He manages to channel the creativity, freedom and isolation of a former time, while still sounding fresh and modern. Working closely with veteran producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile, Phosphorescent, S.......
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To fully appreciate Holy Sons album , In The Garden, it's essential to understand Amos, first, as a songwriter. At its core, Holy Sons is a deep exploration of melody. Amos explains, "…the more focused into melody's fundamental purpose you are, the more you can directly harness the overall power of song-craft." In Holy Sons this means every lyrical hook, each guitar line and piano run stacks, builds and layers almost to the point of complete collapse. Traditional structures like chorus, verse and bridge are rendered obsolete as songs are simply songs by whatever means necessary - direct and emotional brain dumps from Amos to the listener - he takes songs where he wants, whenever he wants to. Album opener "Robbed" and "Gifted" expands from a wandering solo acoustic guitar to a fully realized exploded mantra within moments of its brooding start. "Eyes Can See Clearly" is a piano-led ballad that walks the thin line between gorgeous Surf's Up-era Beach Boys and doom-n-gloom, late-period Pink Floyd. It's the cover of Del Shannon's lost nugget "It's My Feeling,: however, that adds revealing context to the album. The directness and despair of Amos' delivery of the lyrics, "You will tell me all your pain, and I will listen and explain…" is bleak, beautiful and disarming. When he croons, "It's my feeling. It's my feeling", he twists a sixties love song into a gut-wrenching existential plea. Lyrically, the songs all work off this model. Brutal truth paired with stunning arrangements. While Amos digs deep into the 60s and 70s songwriter era for the missing blueprint, In The Garden is an undoubtedly contemporary album. While other musicians look back to ape entire songs or sounds as a template, Amos manages to adopt the authentic mindset of a 60s era artist. He manages to channel the creativity, freedom and isolation of a former time, while still sounding fresh and modern. Working closely with veteran producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile, Phosphorescent, S.......
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