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Downloads include choice of MP3, WAV, or FLAC
Gordon Zacharias spent some time in the Essex Green and with Joe Pernice (Big Tobacco) following his limited-edition EP under the name Fan Modine, and those are useful touchstones for the delicate (but never merely twee) indie pop sound of his one-man band's full-length debut. There are strings on various songs here, and gently brushed drums, and vintage synthesizers, and energetically strummed acoustic guitars, and artless boy-next-door vocals. What makes Homeland special is Zacharias' undeniable skill as both an arranger (all those musical elements combine into distinctive, richly satisfying wholes) and a songwriter. Songs as complex as the Richard Davies-like chamber pop of "Pageantry" and as simple as the gently electronic "Gulls by the Sea" (which has more of a Badly Drawn Boy meets Mull Historical Society feel) are equally charming and skilled, and the ten songs form an impressively unified yet varied debut that bodes well for Zacharias' next offering as well. Fans of Belle & Sebastian, the Decemberists, or Magnetic Fields, meet your new favorite band.
Downloads include choice of MP3, WAV, or FLAC
Gordon Zacharias spent some time in the Essex Green and with Joe Pernice (Big Tobacco) following his limited-edition EP under the name Fan Modine, and those are useful touchstones for the delicate (but never merely twee) indie pop sound of his one-man band's full-length debut. There are strings on various songs here, and gently brushed drums, and vintage synthesizers, and energetically strummed acoustic guitars, and artless boy-next-door vocals. What makes Homeland special is Zacharias' undeniable skill as both an arranger (all those musical elements combine into distinctive, richly satisfying wholes) and a songwriter. Songs as complex as the Richard Davies-like chamber pop of "Pageantry" and as simple as the gently electronic "Gulls by the Sea" (which has more of a Badly Drawn Boy meets Mull Historical Society feel) are equally charming and skilled, and the ten songs form an impressively unified yet varied debut that bodes well for Zacharias' next offering as well. Fans of Belle & Sebastian, the Decemberists, or Magnetic Fields, meet your new favorite band.
