Top 100 Albums of 2014: #9 Champs, Down Like Gold Joyous. I’m not sure what word to start with when it comes to Down Like Gold, other than joyous. Brothers Michael and David Champion have harnessed so much wrath on their debut record, taming it into a modest folk swell, there’s nothing but an absolute admission to one’s undeniable joy when hearing it’s compound beauty. Few artists get close to the understated simplistic perfection of Neil Young, but Champs, scribbling both the poetic verse and landscape reverse of a postcard to a vintage idea of love, can do just that. The virtual nakedness that most tracks are exposed to allow little hiding for imperfections lyrically and vocally, yet at each turn the record delivers, tightens and lifts spirits. It’s not a fussy, big record – yet it grabs you like one. It’s shy, but it rattles you like it’s not. That landscape, so vividly brushed to depict youth and love, feels bright and honest enough to touch, as though you could stagger through the canvas into somewhere you’ve been before yet is somehow completely imaginary. The rustic window they’ve opened, no matter how small and incidental it may be in itself, reveals an animated world of limitlessness. It’s an impressive world, offering the intimacy and humility of America’s dusky folk yesteryear, perverted by the glam-rock melodies of T-Rex and some sniffing around R.E.M. albums. (thelineofbestfit).
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:40:08 +0000
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