[Review]: Metallic Falcons: Desert Doughnuts

A re-occuring problem that I see most often being a blogger is that sometimes I find myself overlooking albums that have already been blogged up and down all over the internet, because what's the use right? Now, that's a unfortunately terrible outlook to have, but it's truthfully how I feel sometimes. Now, the reason I say that is because that's almost what happened with Brooklyn's Metallic Falcons. I'd seen them everywhere, and for some reason I felt like I had no need to look into it further. However, had I not looked into it further I probably would've made one of my biggest mistakes of the year because this album left me almost speachless. It's very rare that an album can get under my skin like Desert Doughnuts does. There are plently of albums that have already come out this year that I absolutely love, but I haven't been this taken aback by an album in this way since last year's Horses in the Sky by A Silver Mt. Zion.

This album is all about space; not outer space, although at some points it may feel that way. It's about open space and a feeling of emptiness, it's about dead air, particularly haunted dead air. The vocal teamwork of Sierra Cassady (CocoRosie) and Matteah Baim is extremely arresting, although most of the album's charm(if you want to call it charm) comes mostly from Sierra. Though not quite as evident in her work in CocoRosie, Sierra has got an incredibly versatile, classically trained and operatic voice with a range that can go from angelic to absolutely haunting from one moment to the next.

The songs here could be considered art-rock if anything, though it is speckled with influences of freak-folk, post rock, opera, found sound, you name it, it's bound to be buried in here somewhere. The opening track "The Journey" manages to disguise itself as a choir of angels just long enough for you to settle in before it turns into a burning shoegaze affair with dramatic rambling percussion, tom-rolling away under the haze of foggy distorted guitar.

My favorite track on the album, if only for the fact that even after listening to it some 15 times it still gives me shivers up my spine, is "Nighttime and Morning." If you're like me, the first time you here this song you're probably gonna think you have the volume up too high. Except... you wont. The first third of this song is the perfect example of this album's overall feeling of open space and dead air, because that's exactly what this is, ghostly singing over nothing but hushed white noise. Now, while I do enjoy it, I don't love this track for it's generous display of white noise, I LOVE, and honestly am a little scared of it, because of Seirra Cassady and her delivery of one of the most beautifully terrifying vocal performances I've ever heard.

[MP3]: Metallic Falcons :: Nighttime and Morning (Highly Recommended)

Buy Desert Doughnuts from Amazon.com for $14

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