Later this month, Shearwater will release The Great Archipelago on Matador, their sixth LP since their inception, and the third in a series of theme linked albums (the first two being 2006’s Palo Santo and Rook in 2008). The Great Archipelago is Shearwater’s most accomplished work to date fusing soft melodies with an array of instruments. Taking in a host of worldly sounds and influences, Archipelago begins with a tribal chant which then melts into a soft acoustic ballad, ‘Meridian’, and so begins a groovy journey along the coastal lines of a far-away paradise. Songs such as ‘Black Eyes’, the first single, and ‘Corridors’ go in a different direction than the album’s beginnings, taking a quicker up-tempo composition, which is almost Flaming Lips esque.
The latter half of the record calms down, intertwining folk structures – blending piano and even a string section such as ‘Runners…’ (a personal favorite) and the slow, almost salsa dance-inspiring, ‘An Insular Life’. After the epic, Pink Floyd influenced ‘Uniforms’, the album ends with the warm aubade, ‘Missing…’, naturally bringing the LP full circle to the soft touch that kicked it all off. It achieves its intentions - taking its listener on a journey of the world, celebrating existence & our linkages to everything within it.
Published by The Music Slut
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