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Felt
Anchor & Braille
Band Website: http://www.myspace.com/anchorandbraille
Posted 08/20/09 08:43pm
By Jessica Drazdik
Four years in the making, Anberlin’s front man, Stephen Christian is exposing a broader fan base to his anticipated first solo full-length album for his side project, Anchor & Braille. The album, entitled “FELT” became available Tuesday, August 4th online and in retail stores.
“FELT” is the first record released on Christian’s own label, WOODWATER Records. All eleven songs on this debut were written and saved while Christian was touring and working on Anberlin’s albums. This entire record is compiled of songs that allowed Christian to have complete control and personal freedom as an artist. He was able to dig deeper into his life and pull out personal elements that he felt he couldn’t introduce to Anberlin’s style. He also felt that he wasn’t prepared to become that personal on such a mass platform.
“FELT” features the collaboration with another popular front man, Aaron Marsh of Copeland. Marsh produced, mixed, engineered and even lent some vocals on the project in the track “Forget Love.” Christian’s distinctive voice delivers lyrics about regret, personal joy, and future aspirations which are masked over nicely by toned down acoustics, piano accents, and orchestral melodies.
Usually, when a successful band has members branching off into their own projects, fans tend to become a little nervous and think that maybe the songs were originally written for their main act, but they just didn’t make the cut. However, that is not the case with Anchor & Braille. “FELT” is both beautiful and impressive. The entire production not only showcases Christian’s diversity, but it also makes evident that Marsh is multi-talented in his own respect.
Christian has said that this album is like “exploring a museum with all the lights off.” I would have to agree. The poetic wave of his lyrics embed a relatable, yet calming message to listeners. Even though the feel of this record is greatly contrasted with the sound of Anberlin, I feel that they will attract more fans that really appreciate music and the versatility of artists. Fans of Anberlin will still hear Christian’s familiar voice to remind them where he came from, but this record contains a mellow beauty that is distinctive in its own right and I believe, will appeal to a larger base.
This record definitely serves as a testament of what this artist can really accomplish. Songs like “Summer Tongues” and “Like Steps in a Dance” put me into a mellow trace and this album would definitely serve a favorite for a long drive into the twilight.
Anchor and Braille have joined Copeland’s US tour in with Sherwood, Meese, and Barcelona and will continue to tour and then this month Christian will go to Australia for a tour with Anberlin.
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