Apricot Rail succeed where so many other post-rock bands fail because they’re able to get to the point. What genre-defining bands like Explosions In The Sky take eight or nine minutes to do Apricot Rail are capable of in three and a half. This impeccable sense for the immediacy of great pop structures is arguably one of their biggest assets, and is displayed masterfully on their debut album. It’s a great formula, and they’ve nailed it here on more than one occasion, whilst maintaining an eclectic approach to texture and timbre.
‘If You Can’t Join Them, Beat Them’ morphs from delicate traipse to amiable jaunt to full-on ecstatic rush, in just over four minutes, and on ‘Trout Fishing In Australia’ the band’s penchant for melodic overload is complemented by skittering processed beats and Múm-like strings and horns. There’s an overwhelming sense of hope and lightness to their compositions, and thanks to the brevity of most of the tracks here, they carry the listener on a dreamy flight of fancy that flits gently from one airy mood to another. Only on the eight-plus minute ‘Wadnama’ do the band sink their teeth into more predictably epic here of dynamics. The flute-tastic ‘Pouring Milk Out The Window’ is like an optimistic summer afternoon and ‘Halfway House’ adds burbling electronics to the band’s signature sound of guitar harmonics and urgent rhythms.
The album’s (and arguably the band’s) crowning achievement has to be ‘The Parachute Failure’- it’s spine-tinglingly anthemic and really leaps out at the listener. It so beautifully epitomises the band’s key strengths, as evidenced throughout this remarkable debut – powerful and emotive melodies that engage through the push and pull of delicate restraint and blissful abandon In a word: lovely.
Adam Trainer, Drum Media (Perth)