专辑简介

by Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.Fortune & Folly's CD casing is a marvel of low-tech ingenuity, consisting of no more than a folded piece of brown cardboard, green notes, and a plastic button to stick the CD on. With this first impression, the listener should be excused if she anticipates old-time folk music celebrating pig farming and other joys of rural living. But the opening piece, a mellow instrumental titled "Birch Sap," convinces the listener otherwise: Birch Book must be some kind of new age artist, and the CD cover must have something to do with saving the environment. But alas, this impression is equally wrong, as fans of Birch Book's self-titled debut already know. In reality, Birch Book concocts a mixture that might be described as psychedelic folk with roots connected to singer/songwriters like Nick Drake. The layered arrangements of acoustic and electric instruments create an intriguing sound on "New Joy" and "Diaspora," while the vocals -- as on "The Wondering Boy" -- possess a quiet, breathy presence. For those indoctrinated to Birch Book's charms, Fortune & Folly's songs -- all played at super slow tempos -- are hypnotic and evocative; for others, the songs easily segue into one another, fade into the background, and, thanks to the sluggish pacing, are somewhat depressing.