Pitchfork

No diss on 'Fork folk favorite Band of Horses (or the country warbling of Sera Cahoone, or the bedroom confessionals of S), but so far, this sounds like the project most Carissa's Wierd devotees have been pining for. Four years after the demise of the beloved sadcore outfit, Carissa's principal, one-time Band of Horses ranch hand and pub proprietor Mat Brooke, has resurfaced with Grand Archives (formerly just Archives), a promising four-piece that made its live debut only weeks ago.



Brooke has a voice as earnest as any you're likely to encounter, an instrument which seems to have absorbed much of the rain that's fallen on Seattle, which he now calls home. That voice hasn't changed much since he opened the first Carissa's album by declaring "there will be no tragedies"-- and promptly went on to sing in vague, allusive terms about many apparent tragedies. If anything it's softened, and coupled with the reverb, those semi-accurate Conor Oberst comparisons of yesteryear now seem drastically off-base.

Brooke makes better on his tragedy-free promise here, but ghosts of remorse and regret linger. Much of Carissa's shambling desperation, too, has been traded for an arsenal of harmonizing vocalists-- indeed, all three of Brooke's bandmates intone alongside him, and it's these lush vocal arrangements that lend a fireplace warmth to these rain-soaked ballads.



Taken together, the four slowburners that comprise Grand Archives' demo-- including the recently Playlisted "Sleepdriving"-- find the act light years ahead of much of the underdeveloped schlock that's getting passed off as debut releases proper nowadays. With tunes like these-- not to mention the viral power of internet hype, which is already brewing behind them-- Grand Archives could very well trump the regional success and cult status attained by their forebears, for whom ambition seemed impossible. At the very least, their spelling has improved.

MP3: > Grand Archives: "Sleepdriving"

As Pitchfork's Ashford Tucker described, "Sleepdriving" is "potent dream-pop...[that] boosts the volume, piles on copious layers of vocal harmonies, and builds to massive, upending crescendos."

MP3: > Grand Archives: "Torn Blue Foam Couch"

"Torn Blue Foam Couch" would make an ace album closer, its stately, stripped down opening gradually building toward triumph, finally culminating with some ascending guitar licks and ass-off-the-bench piano key-pounding the likes of which Carissa's would have been too reserved and probably too forlorn to muster. And yes, the dude who "oooos" just before the handclaps enter sounds like a broken kazoo, but that's why these are demos.

MP3: > Grand Archives: "George Kaminsky"

"George Kaminsky" references an incarcerated man who once held the record for collecting the most four-leaf clovers-- all the more astounding given his severely limited stomping grounds. Brooke and buds' vocals cascade over one another, beginning with an open-ended, wistful "If ever I...," but waxing decisive by the end: "I'll leave all these/ Clovers in the ground/ For you to find/ Next time around."

Photos by Renee McMahon