Geron Hoy is a man who spent 13 years searching for the right chords and words to put together and call an album. That album, Soldier is now here, and it is a pleasant bit of folky indie-country-pop.
As far as production goes, this album is well constructed. The vocals are present and in the front, making the story telling nature of Hoy's voice in the songs. Guitars are nicely overlaid without running over each other like impatient school boys trying to get to the one girl who might give them the time of day. Instead, the guitars are mates, coalescing instead of converging. The drums are somewhat simple and mechanical, but that can be forgiven, as it would sound empty without any percussion at all. The bass lines remain simple as well, but this is nice as it does not steal away from the sound of the guitars and vocals, were the focus should be for this sort of music.
Hoy has experienced loss. This is clearly emoted in every song, but no more than on "Time Don't You Take It Away", a song so radio ready, it will be a prom theme or movie soundtrack single in no time. Other big take aways are the title-track and "Around You, I'm Me", both pleasant and a little less deliberate than some of the other tracks.
To me, the only drawback was the first track, "Lady Crow". Perhaps it was intended misdirection, or perhaps it was just bad placement, but this track was weaker than the others and probably wasn't well-placed in the number one slot.
Other than that, a wonderful album of loss and lament, the idea of staying positive in light of the worst.
Where to find it:
RIYL: Counting Crows, The Wallflowers, Jakob Dylan
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