Style: Orchestral folk-pop; compare to Bowerbirds, Andrew Bird, Calexico
Top tracks: “Red,” “Neither Here nor There,” “Vines”
Lost in the Trees’ Ari Picker is more than a guy with an acoustic guitar and emotive tenor. He’s also a classically trained composer, which means the chamber arrangements on A Church That Fits Our Needs are more than window dressing. They’re an integral, beautiful part of this cathartic tribute album that finds Picker attempting to create a space for the soul of his mother, who took her own life in 2009. The record itself becomes a kind of abstract abbey to which the title likely refers. Despite the dark subject matter, Picker manages to embrace hope and celebrate life. “I trust you, but where are we walking to?” he sings on closing track “Vines,” while also admitting “there are things that songs can’t say.”
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