Meredith Bragg
(The Kora)
Oscillating between his stark folk-tinged past and a new, electronica- and orchestral-spiked direction, Meredith Bragg's sophomore effort reads like a transition bridge between two points in an artist's growth rather than a coherent step forward.
The good news is that the new territory is by far the more intriguing. Bragg hasn't so much left behind the stark acoustics of his debut, Silver Sonya, so much as buried them beneath interesting loops, synth and chop shop effects on several tracks, or adorned them in elegant orchestral flourishes elsewhere. The former highlights both "Second Golden Age," where the driving tempo hurtles through a bubbling cauldron of Four Tet-like skitters and stutters, and "Point, Line and Plane," its mangled percussion-echoes augmenting the spacey atmospherics.
As for the bigger instrumental palette, "Birds of North America" opens with pizzicato plucks and swelling strings atop an insistent tempo, and sounds like Andrew Bird and American Analog Set mash-up. On the processional "Lightning Tree," the combination digital and acoustic mix recalls Sparklehorse - though when Bragg sings the line "in time, new light filters through the trees/inside split wide, the straining canopy" and the atmospherics don't change, you'll hear he hasn't yet got Mark Linkous' gift for matching texture to narrative.
As for the more straight-ahead cuts - especially the finger-picked, Nyles Lannon-like "Arrowstork" and the Elliot Smith-bygone love-doppelgangers "Next Time" and "Civilians" - they feel tepid by their conservative use of effects. They read like holdovers from Bragg's past and act like brakes -albeit quiet contemplative ones - on the record's momentum.
The overall effect suggests that Bragg isn't quite ready to leave the Nest yet. When he does, though, it could well be worth following his flight.
DOWNLOAD: "Second Golden Age" "Birds of North America" JOHN SCHACHT
