Tempting us with the tempo of his lyrics in “Angel.” Christening a harmony with pure charisma in “The Dash.” Escorting our worries from the atmosphere with a solid melodic lead in “Afraid to Dance.” In the album Philadelphia, Eric Colville isn’t necessarily rewriting the rules of American folk-rock but instead reminding all of us what made the genre so intriguing in the first place. Don’t get me wrong – I love a good Americana record as much as the next guy, but what separates an LP like this one from the content much of the underground has been obsessed with producing in the past few years is rooted in execution more than it is cosmetics.
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ericcolville
There’s plenty of material in this album that would qualify as being part of the modern folk movement on the surface, but what lies beneath is so much more complex and alternative to the mainstream than what most critics will know what to do with. This isn’t a release that was developed for the sake of winning over radio praise or even the accolades of other musicians in the indie folk community; contrarily, it was made for an expression of self, which used to be the definition of nonpolitical folk music.
“35 & Thinking” floods into “Remember to Forget” epically, though I think that when you break up the tracklist into different parts as opposed to listening to it straight through many of the same chills are present in these performances. There’s so much heart and harmony to unpack in tracks like “Afraid to Dance” and “How Come” that it’s easy to forget about the wealth of compositional technique this player is actually showcasing beside his potent lead vocal.
I probably would have closed with the title track instead of “Be Alright,” but other than this one change there isn’t one structural flaw within this record. Colville is someone who compiles his emotions rather than trying to create some theatrical journey on which we can understand his life and perspective through poeticisms alone, which is enough to make him a primetime player in competition with any of the best mainstream singer/songwriters alive today in my book.
BROADJAM: https://www.broadjam.com/ericcolville
Whether it’s the tense backdrop of “Limbo” or the humbling groove of “Shadow of a Doubt,” Eric Colville’s Philadelphia is loaded with material that is going to get a reaction out of you right from the get-go. Colville isn’t fronting with some fanciful persona in this album, but instead being himself and giving us plenty of reasons to examine his work again in the future.
He doesn’t have to be someone else for the audience; he’s giving us everything he is and, perhaps even more importantly, what he wants to become when he’s inside of a recording studio in Philadelphia, and as long as he doesn’t change too much about the present stylization of his identity, he’s going to keep hearing the kind of positive feedback he’s likely to score all over the indie press with the release of Philadelphia.
Chadwick Easton