Labels: Thrill Jockey
Review by: Alex Deller
Been listening to Arbouretum for quite some time, and while they’ve not failed me yet I initially thought this might be the album with which they quietly let me down. I should have had more faith, really, because the more I’ve listened to it the more ‘Let It All In’ has settled deep into the brackish waters of my subconscious, lingering to the point where I might go days without listening to anything else. It’s less overtly ‘rock’ than the Free-meets-Lungfish material I came to love them for, but in hindsight this quietening has been happening gradually over time, with the band leaning ever more heavily on their folk influences and the calmer, more contemplative side of acts like The Band, The Byrds or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. In many ways things remain the same as ever … meditative, courtly and with a wistful sense of the pastoral about them … but it’s even more stripped back and reserved, with the purposeful motorik surge of the title track the record’s only true rock-out. It’s an album that feels both timely and timeless … a rich, thoughtful, carefully-stitched thing that’s imbued with such subtle, steady joy that I do, indeed, want to let it all in.