The Books
The Way Out

The fact that the boys had the makings of a great group was understood a long time ago...

"Thought For Food" and "The Lemon Of Pink", both released by the Tomlab label, are two authentic jewels of folktronica and (almost) pop assemblies, not forgetting the valuable "Lost and Safe" from 2005 which, in a less experimental and more listenable form, presented a band in good shape and quite connected with innovative ideas and proposals.

I do not know the reasons for the departure from the historic label, but in 2010, with Temporary Residence (a Brooklyn label), this "The Way Out" was released, enriched by covers that change the colors of the writing highlighted against the black of the artwork (a rather useless gimmick in the end...) and we find the same duo, yet changed.
Just like in the famous Leopard where it was stated "Everything must change, so that everything can stay the same", so it happens in this album where they replicate the winning formula in a slightly more varied way than the previous "Lost And Safe" and add a varied universe of samples, laptops, recorded voices modified and remixed that create a linguistic Babel.
I won't be one of those shouting miracle upon hearing this album, however, the fact remains that The Books are one of the most important bands in the field of electroacoustic sampling and they can deliver the right punch or feel a certain compositional apathy, but they always manage to amaze and maintain a good quality standard. In this case, I find the album slightly prolix in some of its tracks.

Starting with "Group Autogenics I", where the listener is invited to relax and follow the path of knowledge through the album, there's an unconvincing start that already had me worried for one of the most anticipated releases of last year. Fortunately, the following "IDKT" represents one of the best tracks written by the group with that folktronica magic that enchants the listener and the same almost soul rhythmic cadence of the subsequent "I Didn't Know That" is very appreciable.
The electronic intensity grows with "A Cold Freezin Night" which will be the album's lead single, and now we dance to techno rhythms, but the joy of still having a new CD from The Books brightens my day even though the intensity of the beautiful feelings drops in the central block. Here we hear too many pop folk signals distant from the Books' world, in fact, I can't associate them with atmospheres referable to groups like Fleet Foxes or even REM, and things only pick up in the final part where I would crown "We Bought The Flood" as the best track.

I deemed it appropriate to convey a sort of quick overview of the songs present in this album for three reasons:
1. it is difficult to encapsulate all the group's influences in one genre, so it was important to convey the variety of the material produced
2. convey the concept of a wavering quality of the album, not all pieces have the same inspiration in my opinion, but perhaps it was inevitable touching many genres so distant from each other
3. account for the common denominator of the Books: everything results to their ears as sampleable, everything becomes rhythm in their hands (and by everything I mean truly everything, from a quote of Gandhi to birds, a yoga session or traffic in the street, etc).

I now understand the reason for the absence of this review on DeBaser, I don't believe it's due to a lack of knowledge of the album or the group, but rather to the difficulty of accounting for everything in a 360-degree perspective.

Take my words as a service to the community, we give thanks to Jesper.