The Album Leaf - In A Safe Place

Cuing the best elements of Mogwai, Sigur Ros (even having a guest vocal appearance on a track) and Telefon Tel Aviv, The Album Leaf have created one of the most engaging records of the year.

How does one discover music? The age old question that record labels pay a ton of money to discover and exploit. While the old fashion print media has always been a mainstay, there is a large shift in focus from that to what many call “online magazines” such as this informative site. Either way, nothing replaces good, old fashioned word of mouth. More often than not friends that tell you to check out a record by a certain band hold more weight than a random music journalist (such as myself) telling you the reasons why or why not to spend your hard earned money on this particular disc.

The Album Leaf (otherwise known as Jimmy LaValle, who formerly played guitar in Tristeza and even further back, The Locust) has been at it for a good while creating music on a very local scale in the San Diego area. Oddly enough, for being located a mere hour away I personally never checked into the music The Album Leaf was creating. Despite all of my best efforts, time finally caught up with me and so did The Album Leaf.

Always having a certain perception of the way that the band was going to sound, I expected the worst and I don’t think I have ever been proven more wrong. Cuing the best elements of Mogwai, Sigur Ros (even having a guest vocal appearance on a track) and Telefon Tel Aviv, The Album Leaf have created one of the most engaging records of the year. It drags you in with it’s lush production (courtesy of Sundlaguin Studios in Iceland) and haunting soundscapes that are so easy to listen to it feels like you have owned the record for years, and it is just the first listen.

I don’t think I can give this any higher of a recommendation.

(Sub Pop Records)