ARBOURETUM

THRILL JOCKEY

ALBUM OF THE MONTH 8/10

IT might be because of the album’s frequent references to water, but there are moments during Let It All In where Arbouretum gain momentum and start to sound like a river flowing steadily towards the sea, growing in speed and size. The Baltimore band have a unique cadence. They swagger heavily like an elephant doing the boogaloo, and on tracks like “Headwaters II” or the immense title track, they seem to be descending from the hills through the rapids towards the sea, unstoppable but always in control, like the outpour from a broken dam: fast, deep, majestic.

Arbouretum are led by vocalist Dave Heumann, who plays guitar and writes most of the songs and, the band have featured a solid core of bassist Corey Allender, keyboardist Matthew Pierce and drummer Brian Carey. The sound this quartet have worked up over the past few albums on Thrill Jockey – , 2013’s and 2017’s (there have also been a handful of self-released records) – occupies unusual sonic territory that embraces both folk and heavier rock but doing so with a restraint and thoughtfulness that makes their music almost stately. You can usually hear traces of Fairport Convention and Crazy Horse at the heart of what Arbouretum do, but they are also aligned with a mix of contemporary artists like Woods, Wolf People, Wooden Wand, Earth and Kevin Morby. The band used to be a little more wild and woolly but over time the frills that featured on their earlier, more folky, albums – (2007) and (2009) – have been eroded, leaving them with a more focused core. This doesn’t mean that heavy jams and cool solos are off-limits – the album’s title song goes on for 12 minutes – but their music is loaded with a different kind of energy, one that comes from the tension of reining back a beast and refusing to indulge in showy overplay. To this central sound, adds additional flavours: the honky-tonk swing of “High Water Song”, the transcendent Middle Eastern raga of “No Sanctuary Blues”, a brilliant medieval waltz called “A Prism In Reverse” and the synthy instrumental palate-cleanser “Night Theme”, which bobs along like something from Eno’s . Adding pep are guests Walker Teret and Hans Chew, while drummer David Bergander joins Carey on almost every track, playing complementary parts that gives the sound of a four-armed drummer at a single giant kit rather than two drummers playing separately. This in itself is very Arbouretum: they always sound like a team.