Speck Mountain

Some Sweet Relief

(Carrot Top)

Record Review by Kevan Peterson

Rhythmic plucking and mild piano chords start Some Sweet Relief with a somber mood, bringing you into a smoke-filled, red-hued lounge.  The same few chords continue plucking throughout the entire opening track, “Shame on the Soul,” punctuated by brief guitar interjections and keys.  Marie-Claire Balabanian’s haunting vocals and Kate Walsh on a wailing organ hold the song in an ethereal place, hovering somewhere on the stratosphere of a somber daydream. 

“Fidelity Shake” continues along the same atmospheric path blazed by its predecessor.  Haunting guitar interplays with an electric piano as Tim Daisy’s percussion work holds the song firmly in place.  Walsh, who plays all the keyed instruments on the album, reaches some impressive high notes with her background vocals at the closing of the track.  “Angela” uses harmonized vocals to pay homage to someone of the same name.  Although lacking on any lyrical throughline, its trance-inducing rhythm will allow your mind to wander elsewhere, while the music will keep you grounded here on earth. 

“I Feel Eternal” borrows a little from Neko Case, while still keeping the haunting reverberated vocals that have drawn some comparisons to Mazzy Star.  The electric keyboard doubles as some jazzy horns on this track and as Balabanian sings the chorus you begin to believe that perhaps even if she’s not eternal, the sound of Speck Mountain may be. 
On the title track, Speck Mountain brings the song down to the bare minimum needed for each instrument.  Simple guitar and bass, long single chords on the organ and cymbals standing in for most of the percussion work.  The track squeezes as much emotion as it can out of the simplest of melodies, a good sign that a band has reached maturity.  The following two tracks “Backslider” and “Backsliding” bleed into one another and are presumably only separated for the MP3 driven market.  “Backslider” is the mainly instrumental introduction to “Backsliding” which draws on the same sparse sound as the albums title track. 

“Twinlines” gets a little bluesy in its opening guitar work and brings the track to a solid wall of sound at its closing.  It’s the last big noise on the album as “Sister Water” the album's closing track returns to the sparseness found on much of the album's second half. Some Sweet Relief is a solid album by a blossoming band that sounds like they’ve been at it a long time.  Each member of the band delivers on their required portions, which becomes especially apparent in the sparser tracks where every note or beat can be heard distinctly.