ARTIST: Carbon Leaf
TITLE: Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat
LABEL: Vanguard Records
GENRE: Rock
BITRATE: 209kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 47min total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-09-12
RIP DATE: 2006-08-05

Track List

01. Learn To Fly                    4:04
02. Love Loss Hope Repeat           4:19
03. Under The Wire                  3:54
04. Royal One                       4:03
05. A Girl And Her Horse            3:54
06. Texas Stars                     4:58
07. Block Of Wood                   4:03
08. Comfort                         3:57
09. The War Was In Color            6:15
10. Bright Lights                   4:08
11. International Airport           4:13

Release Notes:

Barry Privett: Words & vocals
Carter Gravatt: Guitars, mandolin, loops, vocals
Terry Clark: guitars, vocals
Jordan Medas: bass, vocals
Scott Milstead: Drums & percussion

Carbon Leaf blasted into the national spotlight two years ago with their
major label debut, Indian Summer. But while they kept busy working as
support on major national tours (Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows, John
Mayer, etc.) and headlining their own, these Virginia-based self-starters
kept moving forward musically as well as professionally. That point rings
clear throughout Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat, a collection of new songs
whose sound is the richest, whose grooves are the most infectious, and
whose messages run the deepest of anything they’ve yet put to disc.

With Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat Carbon Leaf defines itself as a tight
instrumental unit, capable of cranking up the heat even with scaled-down
arrangements based on acoustic guitar, in perfect complement to a vocal
sound that can’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. Barry Privett has
mastered the art of singing with a compelling detachment; his voice,
whether on its own or woven into two- and three-part harmony, beckons the
listener into the lyric as it opens within the heart of these songs.

And it’s worth getting close to what Privett has to say. Riding with the
band’s creative ascent, he has his head in the clouds on both ends of the
album, beginning with track one, the single “Learn to Fly,” and soaring
all the way to the end, in the witty imagery of “International Airport.”
Between these points of departure he spends some time back on the ground,
taking “the train to oblivion at the crossing of our lives” on “Under the
Wire,” trudging down roads “paved with ice from the darkest tears but
brightened by the ones around you now” on “Royal One,” racing down open
highways toward a collision of the heart on “Comfort,” and even standing
still, watching helplessly as love gallops from reach on “A Girl and Her
Horse.”

On these tracks – in fact, throughout all of Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat –
Privett emerges as possibly the most inventive writer of metaphor in
music today. As the title suggests, “A Block of Wood” is pretty much
about exactly that, though Privett turns it over and around until we see
it as a symbol of something whittled into oblivion and lost (“In the ash
I found an ember, something warm … blowing in the wind”). Perhaps his
finest moment comes on “The War Was in Color,” a touching dialog between
grandfather and grandson that turns, in a moment, into an unexpected,
eloquent elegy.

“I wanted songs that were emotionally available to the listener and to
me,” he explains, “without trying to mask what I’m saying with clever
language. The feelings are anxious and regretful. They talk about living
up to the mistakes you’ve made. They examine the humanity and weaknesses
of everyday life.”

It is surprising – yet not, too, in a way – that these finely chiseled
performances gelled as quickly as they did, during a three-week rush of
recording in Nashville followed by ten days of overdubbing in Richmond.
Departing from previous routine, Carbon Leaf didn’t work out this
material on the road before hitting the studio. Instead, they started
rolling tape with nothing but rough sketches as their guides, which they
fleshed into arrangements that might serve as models of instrumental
economy at no loss to emotional impact.

This is, of course, a tribute to the synchronicity that the band has
developed through more than ten years of teamwork. But it speaks as well
to the input of Peter Collins, one of the most respected producers in
the business. With more than 20 years worth of achievement on projects
with Bon Jovi, Elton John, Rush, Jewel, and dozens of other high-profile
artists, Collins could apply outstanding ears and experience to Carbon
Leaf’s ideas. It was, Privett insists, an ideal meeting of minds.

“We tend to write freely, without editing,” he explains. “Peter helped
us trim our stuff and at the same time open it up. As the songs came
together, I realized we were writing about the unseen forces that drive
our lives: the seasons of the year, the human cycle of love and loss,
life and death, despair and hope. The phrase ‘love, loss, hope, repeat’
became the album title because it summed up the bittersweet tone of
these songs.”

It also documents the self-awareness that the members of Carbon Leaf
have developed, as individuals and as an ensemble. They’ve come a long
way from their decision, as students at Randolph-Macon College, to try
their luck at forming a band. But for all they’ve accomplished, Love,
Loss, Hope, Repeat is something different. It is, in fact, a turning
point: accessible yet poetically elusive, rhythmically irresistible yet
understated, a harbinger of what will come and the sum of what had gone
before. Carbon Leaf, like Privett’s celestial visions, is on its way up.

http://www.carbonleaf.com
http://www.purevolume.com/carbonleaf