About

There's an aural poignancy that runs throughout Lionlimb's compelling sophomore album, 2018's six-track Tape Recorder. While the Nashville-based duo of singer/songwriter Stewart Bronaugh and drummer Joshua Jaeger have always evinced a sun-dappled, '60s brand of emotionality, the added poignancy on Tape Recorder can, at least in part, be explained by the group's slightly different recording process this time out. Fresh off their European tour, Lionlimb settled into a studio at New York's Columbia University (and later, the Relic Room studio) where they began crafting these layered, classical chamber-inflected songs. While the core of the band's sound still centers on Bronaugh's hushed, poetic vocals, they've expanded their indie rock approach with Bronaugh setting pen to staff paper to score his expansive arrangements. Along with swirling guitar and basslines, he weaves in organic amounts of cello, violin, and bass clarinet. The result builds nicely upon the group's heretofore psychedelia-dipped brand of indie rock, and retains much of their longstanding devotion to the late singer/songwriter Elliott Smith. This atmospheric, bedroom orchestral aesthetic also brings to mind more vintage touchstones like Nick Garrie's 1969 cult-classic The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas, and even some of Donovan's more esoteric recordings. – All Music