The Pull of Autumn - Memory Tree (RBM Records)

A single’s primary function is to go ahead of an album like an advanced party to reconnoitre the landscape and test the water by giving the existing and, of course, potential fans a taste of what is to come. But things are more complex in the world of The Pull of Autumn. Why? Because their albums are so mercurial and ever-shifting, not just one album to the next but from track to track to the point that whatever single you put out, even with the best will in the world, would have its work cut out trying to sum the band, it’s sound and the parent album up concisely.

It’s an excellent problem to have, I guess. But any single, like “Opening/Closing” and “I Was Just Dreaming”, which have already been given such a task, can only represent the band’s approach and sonic mood, attitude towards music making, and general musical demeanour.

So, with an understanding of how The Pull of Autumn makes music rather than any real expectation of the sound they might produce, the listener is in the right frame of mind to jump into Memory Tree, the band’s fifth album to date.

Led by Rhode Island native Daniel Darrow who made his name with 80s post-punk group Johanna’s House of Glamour, The Pull of Autumn might be seen as a broad and ever evolving collective but has a group of core members and team players at its heart. Not only Bruce MacLeod, Matthew Darrow, Luke Skyscraper James (I.R.S. recording artist Fashion), but a revolving door of collaborators with each release involving additional notable and emerging artists, drawn from the local scene and further abroad.

This time out we find Philip Parfitt of The Perfect Disaster to, This Twisted Wreckage’s Ricky Humphrey as well as San Francisco-based sonic stalwarts Leigh Gregory and Julius Manning, Berkeley singer-songwriter Sophia Campbell, and last but not least, Rhode Island Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame inductee Paul Everett, also in the massed marvellous ranks of the sonic posse.

Here, the listener will find such treasures as “Lost Time”, a lilting ballad that has a touch of The Smiths at their most pathos-infused, the dark, spoken-word atmospherics of “Lines Written”, the gentle, Lou Reed vibes of the “Dolphins” and the shimmering, indie-folk of “Freedom’s A Thief”. And, of course, the two aforementioned fantastic singles.

The Pull of Autumn makes music for the brave, the discerning, and the adventurous—for people who don’t want just more of the same, for people truly interested in where an album, a band, or music in general goes next. They make music for people like themselves.

I Was Just Dreaming’
Opening / Closing
Spotify
Beautiful Broken World album
Outlaw Empire feat. Mark Stewart, Adrian Sherwood