Release Date: Jul 1, 2008
Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Pop
Record label: Shout Factory
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Earlimart pared itself down to the vocalist duo of Aaron Espinoza and Arianna Murray for Hymn and Her, a loose and stripped affair. It's a much more relaxed and sprawling collection of breathy sighs into an Elliot Smith afterworld (his name was going to come up somewhere -- might as well do it now) than the group’s previous five albums. Lush, baroque-pop drifts like the gorgeous 4AD’d “For the Birds” or the slow-motion, horn-accented “Face Down in the Right Town” are lovely, but they’re only half of what Earlimart does well.
Lo-fi aficionados rejoice for another dreamscape from the Ship Already 2008 has proven to be the year of the power duo: Mates of State, She & Him, The Weepies and Matt & Kim are just a few that have dropped excellent releases over over the past six months. However, Earlimart’s Ariana Murray and Aaron Espinoza should sound even more familiar, as for about 10 years they have branded their own sweetheart sound of transcendent indie rock. The band's latest, Hymn and Her, keeps this standard.
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