New Music From Vetiver

Posted on Oct 31, 2019
New Music From Vetiver

Andy Cabic’s musical being is, like many curious 21st century musicians, shaped and sustained by divergent tangents. If he’s not crafting a melancholy folk-rock diamond in his Northern California studio, he’s moving a dance floor with bossa nova and house DJ sets, or helping curate a compilation of Japanese City Pop. What’s magic about the new Vetiver LP Up On High is the way these tangents color the ten songs without undermining a distinct move to more elemental, spacious and natural arrangements. At the heart of each of these ten songs is Cabic’s voice: sweet, tender and weathered—a welcome and soothing old friend if ever there was one. There are other familiar friends: the album also features longtime engineer and collaborator Thom Monahan and the same resourceful and versatile band that helped Cabic make the denser and more-layered Complete Strangers from 2015.

Up On High was written on acoustic guitar. Having moved twice since Complete Strangers, increasingly accustomed to a life in and out of boxes, Cabic found it to be the easiest instrument to reach for in moments of inspiration. The basic tracking of the album took place over a few Spring days at a friend’s house in the high desert of California. This simple set-up captured the organic immediacy of a roomful of friends playing together on the floor. It’s alive and ever so subtly crackling with the intensity of a band working together, teasing out the melody and rhythms of songs with warmth and intimacy. Cabic and Monahan took the fruits of this session to Los Angeles and finished the album at Monahan’s studio over the summer as other friends popped by to lend their talents. This album reflects the world that Cabic created and lives in: Jorge Ben phrasings peek out from behind Tom Petty‘s Wildflowers outtakes, a gentle jangle lifts whispers of REM’s Murmur on a breeze up from Compass Point Studios. But Up On High is most clearly Cabic and his band inhabiting the realm the band was born in—sleek, economical, soulful, and sometimes sadness-tinged melodies riding on the gentle choogle and sway of an ensemble moving in beautiful unison. This is an album that breathes with you in real, lived in, natural time.

“The sound is rooted in folk-rock, though these fresh ten selections expand the template with touches of soft rock, college rock, indie rock, and classic rock intermittently nodding toward country rock… The disc is a focused affair, and… avoids faltering into the overzealously mellow.” – The Vinyl District

“Like Vetiver’s best work (alongside which this album certainly stands), Up on High showcases the work of a veteran songsmith who realized the beauty of capturing and then sharing a musical moment. In that exchange, we’re offered a connection, a reminder, a challenge, a friend.” -No Depression

Recommended Tracks: Track 3, “Swaying, “Track 6, “Wanted Never Asked, “Track 2, “To Who Knows Where”

FCC Clean

Label: Mama Bird

Skip to toolbar