Sure, as a reviewer I tend to be a sucker for this type of simplified approach and almost prefer a guy in a bedroom with a few of his friends stopping by to visit and add textured elements, but being a fan has made me picky. I salivated over Owen's first record and have barely been able to listen to anything Mike Kinsella has put out since. I praised Hayden's last record a couple years ago and can barely get through half of his latest effort.

What stands out about Montgomery's compositions on Like Trees We Grow... is the cohesion and the flow. In the iPod universe the snob-indie-rock set now orbits, the importance of a good "album" has never been more important. The fact that I can't burn a couple songs from here and feel satisfied is indication number one that Montgomery is onto something. Take the transition between the first two songs "The Walking Sonnet" and "Fashion/Murder" for example. The former sets the mood with Montgomery's voice and an atmospheric backdrop that ends with backing female vocals, giving way to the latter track which builds on the first with the introduction of drums and an angelic chorus of female vocals.

If there would be a knock on Montgomery it's that his music is slow and too melancholy and perhaps even too intimate, but that's precisely where his strength lies. He's not in a hurry and he's not looking to wow the listener with sounds. Rather, he practices restraint and lets the collection of songs run their course navigating through what seems to be all the right changes and textures to keep it interesting to any listener with a keen ear for music that isn't the flavor of the week and will stand some test of time.

This isn't to say that it's all just downtrodden songs for the depressed and lonely. "Singing to the Thieves" rocks out in fuzzed out Neutral Milk Hotel territory and is catchy both musically and lyrically. "I'm starting to forget the reason that I cared in the first place. What was it that you said, something about a love that your after."

Heavy, sophisticated and brilliant, this took some time to grow on me like many good records do and deserves repeated listening and analysis well beyond the pop-the-CD-in-a-dozen-or-so-times-and-write process.

posted 11.27.04

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----- Matt Ralph has bags full of bad CD's. Add to his collection at matt@tangzine.com