Citizen Dick Retrospective – Best of 2009 – Akron/Family

I feel a smidge guilty about it, but this record requires almost no discussion. There’s no lengthy introduction for this one, no psuedo-academic connection to some broader purpose, no detailed discussion of the album track-by track, no deep analysis of the band’s influences. None of it is needed. This record (I think) transcends the need to talk about it. Listen to it. Soak it in. Dig what the three cats in Akron/Family are telling you. After you do that, listen to it again. Repeat that cycle for a while and you’re good. There’s no soft spot on the record (maybe “MBF,” for it’s odd out-of-placeness, but that’s probably just me playing the contrarian). Love is Simple was a great record as well (“Ed is a Portal” and “Phenomena” are both the kind of songs that everyone that strums an acoustic guitar wishes they’d written) but there were parts of it that you could live without. All of Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free seems vital. Akron/Family seems to have stumbled across a perfect record with this one, honing all of the things that have been easy to love about them for a while and cutting some of the less critical meanderings.

If we have to brass tack it to get this thing by my editors, you need to know the following things: (1) “Gravelly Mountains of the Moon” is my favorite song of the year. Number one with a bullet. As much as I fawn over the pert and streamlined “Two Weeks,” it’s the wandering. eight minute, psychedelic opus that I’m going home with. We’ve got a killer live version below that (sadly, inexplicably, inexcusably) eliminates the “put me in, let me run with the ball” coda, but still gets the job done nevertheless. (2) Seth Olinsky absolutely shreds. Dana Janssen and Miles Seaton are no slouches either. If you’re going to play experimental neo-folk, you’ve got to have chops. These three fellows have them in spades. (3) The album’s closer, “Last Year,” defies description. I’ve got a live version of it that is too lo-fi to post here, wherein the band sings unamplified with the audience. It is mindbending. (4) If you haven’t already bought and digested this thing, you’re missing out. It is the truth. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next Akron/Family record (and hoping that they come to Cleveland. I missed the summer show at the rock hall and they are supposed to be (and all evidence suggests actually are) the cat’s pajamas live). If they’re going to keep making each record better than their previous one, the next one is going to be a doozy.

Akron/Family – River

Akron/Family – Gravelly Mountains of the Moon – Live