Although terms such as indie-folk, Americana, and singer-songwriter are all valid descriptions for the music that Ethan Samuel Brown makes, none of those capture the scale and scope of “Rothko,” the first song from his latest album, Small Actors. And whilst it is fair to say that most of the songs that follow are less anthemic than this opening salvo, it does inform us that there is something different about him from those we usually encounter in such generic territory.
And, across ten tracks, he certainly does things differently, swerving obvious tropes and easy categorization whilst still tethered to some classic sounds.
Take “Salutation Waltz,” a gentle lilting piece that cocoons itself in many layers of ambient textures to create an ornate blend of roots music and fairground sonics, brass clarion calls, and folk rock energy…a description that seems inadequate even as I write it.
“Being Blue” is shimmering and majestic, a piano-led slice of balladic folk-pop that is embued with grace and grandeur and reminds me in part of Damien Rice, employing that same blend of spaciousness and epic, sky-scraping gravitas.
In contrast, “Am I American?” is both poignant in its lyrics and powerful in its garage rock drive, raw, raucous, and riotous, like a modern-day MC5 or The Stooges..and by god we could do with one of those.
Small Actors exists at that point where generic labels fail us….shouldn’t all albums?
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