Mandolin Orange - Haste Make | Hard Hearted Stranger '2011

Tracks list

Tracklist

CD1
01. Haste Make
02. No Weight
03. Lines on the Floor
04. Wake Me
05. Runnin Red
06. Not a Word
07. Slither
08. Ships Sail Away
09. Angel

CD2
01. Big Men in the Sky
02. Never Die
03. Clover Tune
04. Killer
05. Hard Hearted Stranger
06. Next to Nothing
07. Train Song
08. Darling Girl
09. Birds of a Feather


The music critic cliché about double albums is that theyd often be better if
they were boiled down to single album size, but thats not the case with the
second release from North Carolina duo Mandolin Orange. Besides the consistent
quality of the material, the thing that keeps this two-CD set from falling into
the aforementioned category is the fact that its really two separate albums
packaged together, rather than one double-length slab of songs. Haste Make and
Hard Hearted Stranger were each recorded at different studios during different
periods of time; each has different guest players and its own distinct sonic
identity. Naturally, both discs find singers/multi-instrumentalists Andrew
Marlin and Emily Frantz delivering graceful, organic-sounding vocal harmonies
and supporting their songs with deft acoustic instrumentation, including
guitars, mandolin (of course), fiddle, and viola, all employed in a low-key folk
setting. But Haste Make is a rather more full-bodied set, achieving a bit of a
folk-rock sound, while Hard Hearted Stranger is a much more sparsely arranged,
fragile-sounding collection of tunes. Still, its not as though the first disc
gets into gritty, Crazy Horse-style territory or anything - its still a
relatively laid-back affair, but the minimalist settings of Hard Hearted
Stranger are such that even the subtlest of musical additions seems striking in
contrast. In the end, though, the true measure of this outings success is the
fact that each disc works equally well on its own terms.

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