Rating: 2.5 Pulses

Trees Leave has a new album, Run is the title. Maybe you should take their advice. The album is a blend of folk and rock and countryish (maybe bluegrass) stuff. Instrumentation is drums, electric bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar (is that a banjo?), male vocals, and background vocals. The songs vary in tempo from ballad speed to pseudo-bluegrass up-tempo.

Describing this album is easy because it is not complicated. This is a band that has not found its sound yet, and because of this, their stylistic influences stand out very clearly. The country, the rock, the folk and the bluegrassish parts all do little to hide themselves in the mix. This is a theme throughout the album, and is a problem.

There are two major issues. The first is the vocals (which I’ll discuss later). The second is the mix (which relates to the problem of vocals). The basic issue with the mix in this album is that everything seems like it is coming from separate areas. This mix was clearly recorded digitally, and that digitality keeps the tracks from feeling live, and from feeling like they come from a single time and place.

The vocals are the biggest example of the disconnection. The instruments display less of this problem, but the overall vibe feels weak, primarily because the lead singer’s voice stands out dramatically. Sometimes it stands out so much that it makes the listener feel uncomfortable. They should have chosen a microphone that enhanced the connection between the instruments. Instead, they captured a sound which feels separate from everything else, and sometimes sounds shrill. In song 5, “T-shirt Song” where they have a different vocalist perform, the texture fits better in the mix (although the wavering trills don’t).

In many cases, the music feels more connected together than the vocals, but throughout the album there is little to make you want to come back and listen again. Dynamics were lost somewhere and the instruments and vocals just lack the organic feelings of togetherness that really great albums have.

I will say that this band does have talent. You can hear it come together at times. But it has a long way to go before it forms a complete picture. I would like to hear more from Trees Leave though, especially as the singer’s voice matures, and the band goes through a hell of a lot more together.

Melodic creativity and song structures is the band’s biggest positive, which is significant.