It would be imprudent of me to try and better the description already put out by the press release: ‘tangled guitars, lounging organs’ and ‘brush-beats’. But imprudent I am, and for this I’d like to add ‘sonorous, comforting and melting three part harmonies basking in the dusky glow of twilight’. How’s that for imprudence?
The Autumn Defense, consisting of multi-instrumentalists John Stirratt of Wilco and Pat Sansone provides the kind of lilting, cosy sunshine not heard since the likes of Badfinger, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Bread in the early seventies. In fact stand-out track, ‘Written In The Snow’ could have been from the hand of either of these godfathers of mellow-rock.
Against a backdrop of snow, village greens, city lights, second avenues, empty beds and 2.45am vigils in your bed-sit, ‘Circles’ crafts a beautifully scored relief to love, longing and lasting impressions. Casual, causal and tempered by the gentlest of voices, tracks like ‘Silence’ and ‘Written In Snow’ incur the same heaving blessedness as Thom Yorke’s ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and the Kings Of Convenience’s ‘Toxic Girl’
With the exception of the loose, shuffling greatness of ‘The World (Will Soon Turn Our Way) however, the second half of the album begins to pall, calling to mind the bland, insipid grace of a Christine McVie led Fleetwood Mac, or at best, outtakes from the loosely related Minus Five release earlier in the year, with only the delicate drunkery of ‘Iowa City Adieu’ providing anything by way of an exception.
It’s a gentle and provincial landscape that could easily pass for something out of a Paul Simon lyric, but for fans of folks like Richard Hawley, Turin Brakes and the Kings Of Convenience it’s a landscape that’s sure to please.