ARTIST: Now It's Overhead
TITLE: Dark Light Daybreak
LABEL: Saddle Creek
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 214kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 37min total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-09-12
RIP DATE: 2006-07-16
Track List
----------
01. Let The Sirens Rest 4:09
02. Estranged 4:01
03. Walls 3:43
04. Believe What They Decide 3:39
05. Night Vision 3:51
06. Type A 2:25
07. Dark Light Daybreak 3:53
08. Meaning To Say 4:01
09. Let Up 3:26
10. Nothing In Our Way 4:10
Release Notes:
At the nucleus of Now It's Overhead is the songwriting of
multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer Andy LeMaster, who
has long lent his talents to Bright Eyes and whose Chase Park
Transduction studio has recorded the likes of REM, Drive-By
Truckers, The Glands, Chris Martin, and a host of Saddle Creek
label mates.
Since the first, self-titled Now It's Overhead release in 2001,
LeMaster has crafted his compositions with the help of Azure
Ray's Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor, as well as drummer Clay
Leverett, with whom Andy has played music for nearly two
decades. This combination of talents has lent itself fluidly to
the range of LeMaster's songwriting, the diversity of which
shined throughout 2004's critically lauded Fall Back Open. 2006
finds Fink, Taylor, and Leverett in the studio with LeMaster
yet again, putting the finishing touches on Now It's Overhead's
third full-length, Dark Light Daybreak.
Now It's Overhead has more than once evoked the term "dreamy."
Dark Light Daybreak is not exactly an exception - it's awash in
the band's signature moody layers and wall of guitar. But if
the previous two records were dream-like, Dark Light Daybreak
is more akin to waking up.
Providing by one turn a desert-highway soundtrack, by another,
a heartrending nostalgia for a moment just past the edge of
memory, Dark Light Daybreak is sharp around the edges, with
each song's elements being as distinct as the whole. A
syncopated beat pops against an insistent bass line. The
comforting patter of a keyboard is unsettlingly punctuated by
overdriven, discordant voices. And throughout, Andy LeMaster's
reedy vocals, as diverse an instrument as any on the album, are
as true in a fragile harmony as they are on a soaring,
cathartic chorus. Whether delivering an acidic indictment or a
hopeful sentiment, voice combines with lyrics to speak the
collective experience of individuals.
Now It's Overhead's latest offering sees LeMaster's seasoned
production skills synthesizing songwriting and recording;
letting space and clarity serve as a thread of tension that
runs through the album, unifying songs that range from stark
to symphonic, buoyant to tragic. The range of Leverett's
drumming and the variations of Taylor and Fink's vocals shine
through, adding to each song the expertise of musicians who
stand back, listen, then bring exactly what needs to be there.
Dark Light Daybreak runs the songwriting gamut, leaving not a
moment to be missed.
LeMaster and friends have toured the United States and Europe
alongside such bands as REM, Rilo Kiley, The Faint, Tilly and
the Wall, Desaparecidos, and Azure Ray. Now It's Overhead will
again be touring extensively in support of Dark Light Daybreak.