Early Day Miners paints beautiful images in their listener’s minds, like a true artist of the Renaissance era. Daniel Burton’s hushed, softly sung vocals and brilliant lyrics that perfectly articulate the visual beauty of the outside world around him has become a trademark for the band. Their two previous full lengths, Placer Found and Let Us Garlands Bring, were wonderful products of a genre some refer to as slowcore, but for our purposes I’ll just label them as intricate and delicately composed indie rock. Their latest effort, Jefferson at Rest, was set out to become more of a rock record per se, or so claims their record label Secretly Canadian. In many respects this hold true; the structures fit that type of model and songs seem a bit more up front without as many meandering moments as on earlier releases. It is for all purposes easily to digest.
The band still hasn’t lost any points with me; in fact I’ve given them a few extra for this release. The songs are undoubtedly catchy while remaining ultimately sincere and serene in quality. Songs like "Jefferson," "McCalla," and my personal favorite on the record, "Into Pines," explore new territories lyrically as well as thematically. Burton appears to be fascinated with various aspects of southern architecture, landscape, culture, and themes from the times before and after the civil war. He intimately reminisces about these moments, describing them in a superlative amount of detail. While listening to the record the listener almost feels transported to this classic era in American history. So in many respects Jefferson at Rest could very well be considered a concept album, but in essence it is so much more.
The musicians on the album, guitarist/vocalist Daniel Burton, guitarist Joseph Brumley, drummer Rory Leitch, and bassist Matt Lindblom, play their instruments with refinement and elegance. Every song on the record allows the listener to remain in a meditative state, while at the same time enjoying a highly melodic record with a lot of catchy hooks. Jefferson at Rest is a creative record with memorable songwriting and a level of emotion that exceeds most. It proves to be one of the strongest and most meaningful releases of the year and comes highly recommended.
1. Wheeling
2. New Holland
3. Jefferson
4. Mccalla
5. Awake
6. Into Pines
More about: Early Day Miners
