Papercuts
Fading Parade

First of all, it's Papercuts, not "the Papercuts"; it is, in fact, the pseudonym used by Jason Robert Quever, a Californian, for his musical project started back in almost 2004.

An engaging, dreamy, brilliant, and ambitious musical project. Thom Monahan's production adds his magic touch to this fourth work by San Francisco's small bovine, and the entire album seems to radiate with a strong life force, a natural power that grows sonic roots, roots that plant themselves in the brain and stretch to stay there. The inspired songwriting and the massive support of the band that accompanies him on tour give Quever two wings to fly in the night.

Because this is a nocturnal album, dark, with a sky cleared of clouds, black and perhaps illuminated by distant glimmers, by the streetlights on the highway behind the hill, the lights of the airport while the wind blows and you zip up your jacket, a small wooden stage in a summer meadow on which an unknown artist plays. Perhaps Papercuts himself. His is a voice that comes from within; at times, it feels like you're hearing a dream speak. A guitar with a lunar sound opens the album with arpeggios on "Do You Really Want To Know" and from there, you don't wake up until the end. There are landscapes you don't see without music, there are paths you don't notice without the right help, so if you let yourself be guided by the dense melody of "I'll See You Later I Guess", a hidden path is shown to you. "The Messenger" takes you to observe the high tide in the dark, and on "White All The Waves", the dreamy synths and guitar strums unleash silent waves of silver. It takes little to see it all: old galleons sailing the sea on "Marie Says You've Changed", driven by winds of notes from the deepest and most blissful sleep, faces from the past that flow like a film on "Wait Till I'm Dead", when they say your whole life flashes before your eyes. There is a scent of Velvet Underground in the driving and rich "Chills", and of Radiohead in the soft "Winter Daze", where the sky turns pink after a snowfall, while Quever decides to share a small intergalactic journey with those who listen in the sidereal "Do What You Will", cosmic screams that embrace infinity.

The protagonists of this fading parade walk silently under a starry sky you never forget, on one of those nights you hope never ends. Dawn arrives on "Charades" that you enjoy until the first ray of sunshine, when the silence following the brief creak of the CD player makes you realize the dream is over, wake up and have coffee, hoping to find yourself again tomorrow night.