Having made their fascination for U.K. post-punk rock in the 4AD and shoegaze vein clear on their earlier work, it was perhaps no surprise when
the Autumns scored a pretty good coup, getting
Cocteau Twins bassist Simon Raymonde to produce
In the Russet Gold of This Vain Hour. Reasons to listen in go beyond handy connections -- Raymonde's skill as a producer has been proved a number of times over on other releases, while
the Autumns themselves continue in the vein of
The Angel Pool with a couple of slight twists and turns. The excellent single "The Boy With the Aluminum Stilts" kicks everything off, singer Matthew Kelly's voice soaring with a sweet falsetto over a slow, deliberate cascade of digital delay guitar with just enough heft and implicit drama to impact. Check out both the careful use of piano in the arrangement and the impact of the abrupt ending. The album isn't always so theatrical, though -- the shifts between fuller arrangements and vocal/guitar-only parts on "June in Her Frost and Fur," one of the album's most attractive songs, shows how subtlety is really the album's callling card. Calmer acoustic-based songs come to the fore more towards the record's end, as the blend of guitar and piano on the instrumental breaks of "The Wreathe and the Chain" shows, but "Witch Hazel" breaks into a minute-long feedback zone. A number of songs take a slightly more American turn, in ways -- there's a hint of country steel guitar twang on "Oriel," especially on the solo, which is very attractive without going against the overall atmosphere. The gold-themed artwork on the cover nicely reflects the mood of the album as a whole -- a warm summer evening shading into a cooler night, if one likes, arcs of the setting sun casting a glow on the proceedings. Flowery language for an album? Perhaps so, but the music deserves it. ~ Ned Raggett