3.5/5 Pitchforks
If you are a fan of The Band Perry’s lead vocalist, Kimberly Perry – the artist behind Billboard chart topper, “If I Die Young” – chances are that Australian outfit The Paper Kites's lead female vocalist, Christina Lacy, will sound amazingly similar.
Now, don’t go running at the thought of picking up The Paper Kites and hearing a country band, because that just isn’t what this group is trying to do at all. The indie band leaves any Band Perry-esque twang back in the outback, where it probably belongs, and instead takes an ethereal, total iTunes-bedtime-playlist approach to its debut album, “States.”
The album, released on Oct. 1, marks The Paper Kites’s first non-EP venture into the music world and comes hand-in-hand with the band’s first North American tour as special guest of City and Colour, kicking off Oct. 2. The group will be visiting Tempe’s Marquee Theatre on Oct. 11 and will eventually break off into its own headline tour later this month.
Formed in 2009, The Paper Kites is a five-artist conglomeration of acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonica, mandolin, bass, synthesizers and some seriously calm, cool vocals. Highly comparable to works from Ben Howard, Kites knows how to pick you up after a long and rough day, how to help you get through that difficult and wordy textbook, but also simultaneously inspires you to head off on a nature-seeking cross-country road trip and take an afternoon cat nap, all at the same time.
“States” is most definitely built on an acoustic-folk foundation, but includes a unique and almost random littering of smooth rock, heard in, “A Lesson From Mr. Gray,” “In Reverie” and “Cold Kind Hand.” Most of the tracks are incredibly relaxing: that perfect homework or early Sunday morning, sitting on a porch with a cup of coffee, kind of music.
“St. Clarity,” a banjo-dominated track, was the group’s first released single from the album. The track was given an official music video, directed by award-winning director Natasha Pincus, the mastermind behind Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” that gained over 430 million Youtube views.
Frontman Sam Bentley explains in The Paper Kites’s biography that the album refers to states of mind, not physical places, and that the group decided to take “States” deeper and darker than had been done in previous works. Bentley’s interest in creating texture with the addition of what he calls “strange little noises” give the album an eclectic and intriguing sound.
The album tracks were written in January 2013, as Bentley packed up his car with all the possible equipment he could need and held himself up at a friend’s place outside of Melbourne, Australia. After spending time on his own, band members, including female vocalist Christina Lacy, David Powys, Josh Bentley and Sam Rasmussen came together to create “States,” along with compositional collaboration with Timothy Cognill, the former drummer for musician Matt Corby.
Lacy’s solo ballad, “Living Colour,” however, is a bit too lazy for my liking. While it’s evident that this style is right up Lacy’s alley, the somehow intensely lethargic overall pace of the song does a better job of being irritating rather than supremely tranquil.
Altogether, “States” is an album that soothes the mind and is something sure to be on my Sandman playlist.
Reach the reporter at kgumpert@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @cat2bekittenmee