death vessel

Stay Close

The first thing you notice about Providence nu-country act Death Vessel (better known to his folks as Joel Thibodeau) is that he sings like a girl. Now this isn't mere classroom taunting here, he actually does sound just like a girl... it was only because I had it on good authority that he really is a bloke that I stood corrected. Not that this is a bad thing, quite the opposite in fact, his vocals (girlish as they may be) are fantastic, it's just, well freakish. 'Stay Close' was originally released back in 2004, but since Death Vessel have just been snapped up by US indie giants Sub Pop it's as good a time as any to grab hold of this lovingly packaged UK issue of the album. A few years back Country was a dirty word, it was one of those genres (along with opera) that you'd say 'I love all music except', you know country music was Garth Brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus, and nails on a chalkboard don't even go half way to explaining that. Recently however the whole country thing has become somewhat of the moment, I guess with all genres there's a reaction to being desperately uncool and with the help of the alt.country brigade (Lambchop, Calexico, Iron and Wine and friends) we have suddenly seen the American plains become fashionable and enjoyed by hipsters the world over. Death Vessel slots very neatly into this canon, and he manages it by the most simplest of tricks; good ole fashioned songwriting. There's comparisons to be made with pre-'Year of Meteors' Laura Veirs (except that Thibodeau sounds a little more girly...); tight but subtle production, memorable hooks and gorgeously picked acoustic guitar but in the end Thibodeau's voice becomes so memorable in its strangeness that 'Stay Close' becomes a world all of its own, and a damn nice one at that. Country pop music should never be this addictive...