And then there is the matter of the hat. Often, when you first listen to an album of this particular genre with your reviewer’s hat on – see, everybody wears a hat – you think not of the music but of the hat. Maybe it’s a vibe thing that multiplexes itself through all true and wholesome Americana but it was a certainty that The Pines would be 24 hour a day hat wearers – les hommes avec chapeaux as the French might say.
The matter of the hat aside for now, it is time to turn to the music on this album. Things start without uncertainty or radical thought with “Pray Tell” as salvation is searched for. Standard subject matter but tastefully handled. The rest of the album follows in much the same vein with hints of redemption and discontent throughout like this Iowa duo had been inspired by a downbeat emulation of Woody Guthrie. However, as I progressed through the songs on this album, I began to wonder about David Huckfelt’s voice that runs as close to a flatline as a singer can. No doubt a stylistically and artistically valid approach, his near shoegazing intensity nonetheless causes many of the songs, especially “Skipper and His Wife” and “Behind The Time”, to drag and it is interesting to note that it is the instrumentals (“Avenue of the Saints”) that provide the escape from total introspection overload.
Rather too serious and restrained to charm you, “Tremelo” is a decent if unimaginative example of its genre and a little levity would not have gone amiss.