Release Date: Jan 29, 2013
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Post-Rock
Record label: ATP Recordings
Music Critic Score
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Tall Firs are neo-folkies, but don't confuse them with the beard twirling, autoharp-strumming breed of sprites of the early 2000s. The New York City-based duo perform at coffeehouse volume, but their core inspiration has always owed more to Tom Verlaine than Alan Lomax. Aaron Mullan and Dave Mies rarely strum a chord. Instead, they form their songs from the back-and-forth dialogue between crisp and clean riffs on open-tuned electric guitars.
Somewhere in the subdued squalor of Tall Firs’ third LP there is an angle worthy of opening an album review. Some sort of dramatic tension or compelling turn of events to pique your interest and keep you reading beyond the first paragraph. It’s in here somewhere, I’m sure. I hope... Truth is ….
The third outing from Annapolis-based Tall Firs finds Dave Mies and Aaron Mullen returning to their guitar duo origins while maintaining the raw honesty of 2008's Too Old to Die Young. The 11 tracks that make up Out of It and Into It are deconstructed almost to the point of helplessness. Moody and meandering, they wander through the daylight like shell-shocked cave-dwellers, looking for anything remotely familiar to grasp onto.