Earlimart - Mentor Tormentor

Genre rock Publisher Majordomo Reords External Links Official Earlimart Website

Before I go into this I think I need to explain that I don't get to pick what I review and I prefer not to. What I do is ask my editor to just pick some discs and send them my way. I do this for two main reasons. One, if it's someone I've picked and really like, I always have a worry that I may be biased and say nothing but great things about them simply because I like them so very much. Two, if I'm not very familiar with the artist it's an opportunity to go into these reviews with an open mind (contrary to my admirer onetonpig's opinion) so some of this stuff as well as the back music is being heard for the first time. So it's a clean untainted slate. Some of this stuff I haven't liked so much and some of this stuff I've really liked. This disc I really liked.

Earlimart, a California trio named after a small town located between their hometown of Los Angeles and Fresno has issued their fifth album Mentor Tormentor. A 15 track lo-fi, guitar jangling, tambourine jingling, chamber-esque journey featuring tales of love, love lost, unrequited love, hopelessness, and other woe is me stuff I an absolute sucker for. This is both soundtrack and driving music at the same time - think Low but slightly faster and more filled out.

Listening to the disc the first thing to stand out are the vocals. Mainly the harmonies between Aaron Espinoza who also sings lead on all but "Happy Alone" and "Segue". On these songs, the lead is taken on by Ariana Murray who also doubles as bassist and does backing vocals on everything else. The best examples of these swirling harmonies are on the tracks "Faker Fake", "Answers and Questions", and "The World".

The music holds it's own just as well, especially on "Answers and Questions" where the atmospheric guitars, keyboards, and tambourine lay down a great backdrop while the drumming keeps everything together.

As for lyrics they're not obvious or obscure or cheesy. They're very honest, simple, and stand true to the theme of love and loss through out the entire disc.

However, there are a few things that did bother me. First off, the hand clapping and "do, do, dos" in "Gonna Break into Your Heart," the song didn't require those additives and in a way it cheapens the song a bit. Secondly, the last two songs "Nothing is True" and "Cold Cold Heaven". Don't get me wrong they're both decent songs in their own right, but it's almost as if they are on a different plain than the rest of the tracks. Almost as if it was a way to try and wind down the disc with something not necessarily different in terms of quality, but different in terms of atmosphere. The best way to put it would be they didn't exactly have the same vibe as the rest of the songs - especially when the disc started off so strong. There's a tapering effect that isn't very successful.