Regular readers will know that I love music that’s unconventional. I love it even more if it’s a grounded effort with plenty of familiar cues.
By Graeme Smith
Favourite Armchair, the self-titled debut of the Rhode Island, USA-based act of the same name definitely fits that bill.
The album has a distinctly rustic and DIY feel and there’s a sense of the throwback about it. Favourite Armchair have captured the wild, unrestrained spirit of ‘60s psych or ‘70s punk through it. I also detected more than a trace of ‘90s Midwest rock (ironic given Rhode Island is on the east coast.)
Aside from the influences, what captivates are the surreal, emotionally stirring lyrics. They’re sometimes spoken word nature poetry, other times captured, conversational audio. Favourite Armchair plays it fast and loose with narrative structure and the results are fascinating.
In This Heat proves an early highlight, feeling like an appropriate soundtrack for this weather. Restless and rambunctious layers of strings settle into a meditative rhythm before off kilter vocal harmonies come in.
Elsewhere we get the looping sales conversation of Woonsocket Moonshot and the delicately ambient and whimsically titled Adagio for Wooden Spoon and Bongos (Shaun Dubreuil is credited with the all-important wooden spoon in the liner notes.) The Flowers Recede In Due Course is a wordplay filled effort that closes the album.
Thematically the record explores the tension between persistence, love, and natural decay. Natural imagery plays a big part. The band even go as far as labelling their sound “naturecore.” It’s through that lens that they meditate on fragility, impermanence, and the passage of time.
Favourite Armchair is not a casual listen. It’s fifteen tracks and 42 minutes long, and many of its compositions are a little out there. Yet, it rewards the patient and open-minded listener, those seeking an antidote to over-produced, over-homogenised slop. I immensely enjoyed it.
Favourite Armchair is Trevor Chisholm on guitar and bongos, Dan Roda on drums, synth, bass, and guitar, Shaun Dubreuil on wooden spoon, Dave Maki on banjo, cajon and shaker, Raime Masket on bag and box, Dave Tierney on piano and glockenspiel, Matthew Riemer on mandolin and melodica, Daniel Chisholm on bucket and railing, Bea Roda on trumpet, Ben Chisholm on piano, and Leighton Brown on hammer.
If you want to keep up to date with all they’re doing, you can by following them on Instagram, Bandcamp, and Spotify.
Favourite Armchair is out now, and you can listen to it below.
