Album of the Week: The Lone Bellow Then Came the Morning

Not every week in the year will feature some seminal album that is going to keep everyone listening and talking for months to come. It just can't. In a world where every week sees the release of at least half a dozen new albums, it's inevitable there will be weeks where nothing earth-shaking comes out.

All of this is not to say that the albums released on these weeks are bad, per se, but rather most will come and go with making much of a splash. In such a week The Lone Bellow's second album, Then Came the Morning, fits the bill perfectly – a completely agreeable jaunt through the Americana sonic landscape with some interesting digressions.

The Lone Bellow (Brian Elmquist, Kanene Doheney Pipkin and Zach Williams) quietly arrived on the scene in 2013 with a lovely little record that was firm-footed in the southern folk tradition that has inspired so many bands, from Mumford and Sons to The Lumineers. On that album, the trio resisted the big sound expansion that the aforementioned groups had embraced and instead kept it small and intimate.

On Then Came the Morning they go big without going bigger, thanks to The National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner, who serve as producer and instrumentalist, respectively. Their fingerprints are all over the album, but never in an obvious way. It's all little touches, added horns or strings here and there, which create a deeper sound for the group.

From the word "go" it's evident this is a bigger record – listen to the opening harmony work that kicks-off "Then Came the Morning," the album's first song. It's rich and glorious – at once reminiscent of Fleet Foxes' best work without actually sounding anything like them – and Bryce's strings contribute beautifully without being in any way overwhelming. It reminds me a lot of a piece of classical music and it is definitely my favorite opening track of the year so far.

Williams' vocals are front and center for the first quarter of the album, which works because he has one of those voices that will immediately remind you of someone (for me it's Glen Hansard) but when he uses it to lift the lyrics, like on "Fake Roses," it's really something.

The band still has those quiet, acoustic-driven folk ballads down pat, as evidenced by Pipkin's lovely turn on "Call to War" – the way she takes her voice to just a slightly higher register on lyrics like "Til the Southern wind puts me six feet down/My feet will march to holy ground," will absolutely floor you. The guitar and piano-driven "Telluride" is also a wonderfully simple traveling song that cuts to the quick.

The Lone Bellow is clearly intent on expanding not only their sound but their well of influences, or at least they are more interested in sampling from a broader spectrum of genres. This leads to tracks like "Watch Over Us" which is reminiscent of Basement Tapes-era Bob Dylan and The Band – I would actually love to have heard The Band take a crack at this in an alternate universe where all the members are all still with us.

Also extremely successful is their foray into country on "Diners" which name-checks George Jones and Johnny Cash's classic "Cry! Cry! Cry!" The band builds its sound verse by verse, and by the end it's a real country weeper, complete with a perfect piano line and pedal guitars.

Less successful is "Heaven Don't Call Me Home," which sees the trio trying on the blues with a guitar-riff taken right out of Gary Clark Jr.'s "Don’t OweYou A Thang." It's not a bad effort, nor is "If you Don't Love Me" (another blues number) but these songs don't play to the band's strengths – beautiful vocal work and shimmering instrumentation. Still, I'll never fault artists for trying something out of their comfort zone, even if the effort is less than stellar.

It's too early to tell if Then Came the Morning will stick around in my head or merely pass like the snows of winter, but right now it's a comforting creation that occasionally makes me stop whatever I'm doing and listen with greater attention. That's more than enough to earn it the top spot for the week.  

Then Came the Morning is out on Descendant.