Apricot Rail
Quarrels
Hidden Shoal Recordings

Let's face the facts: fact #1: It's taken Apricot Rail four years to put out their second album. Fact #2: Quarrels is a gorgeous album.

Apricot Rail is a multi-instrumental pop sextet based in Perth, and they take us with them on a pleasant journey visiting 12 songs of comforting vibes and soothing relaxation. It's hard to explain or describe the beauty of Quarrels. You'd better take the listening trip yourself. The opening "Basket Press", which is a single choice, sets the standard, along with single # 2 off this album "Surry Hills", which I described at the time as '...a blooming, flowering track, almost like a glass of rich, red wine.. (Australian, of course).' Sometimes you'll find Twin Peakish moods, other times slightly (slightly) like Chicagoans such as Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, Jim O'Rourke and David Grubbs (when the latter two do melodic pop, not their impro-experimentalism). Imagine Explosions In The Sky without explosives, or Mogwai without noisy cascades. Even Bedhead springs to mind, even if its only within a song, or maybe part of a fragment. My point is; even though the bands and artists listed are somewhat different in style from Apricot Rail, they're sort of related at a higher level; philosophically and mentally.

Like I said, you'd better check out Quarrels yourself. And, well, as a title 'Quarrels' might be somewhat misleading. There are no traces of anger or heated disputes present at all. With an album like this it's hard, almost impossible to pick favourite tracks. Simply because they all are. That's a fact. Fact #3.

Copyright © 2013 Håvard Oppøyen