Ola Podrida – Belly Of The Lion
Western Vinyl 2009
[tags: folk, indie, americana, 2009]
Listen while reading:
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2009 is, was and will be a great year for music lovers – and it is, was and hopefully will continue to be a great year for Western Vinyl too, because they released some of the best music in 2009, redundant to mention the folk uber album Year In The Kingdom by J. Tillman or the yesterday reviewed dream pop gem Houseboat by Sleep Whale. But there is still more and you – certaintly – have heard about it because many other blogs wrote about it earlier: the new Ola Podrida folk and indie hybrid. In case you haven’t, you can now put on a big fat smile and be happy you found this article.
Ola Podrida are David Wingo (guitars, vocals), Colin Switek (guitar), David McComb (bass) and Matthew Frank (drums) from Austin/Texas and they just released their second album Belly Of The Lion. Their debut, Ola Podrida, hit the road back in 2007 and was, shame on me, not really a album I listend to very much. Why this is so, I can’t explain. But I think Belly Of The Lion is my chance to make things good again.
Maybe we start with the cover artwork, because it is one of the best I saw this year together with Molina And Johnson’s self titled record and Bocca Chicca’s Lace Up Your Workboots. And I don’t mean the cover just as a cover, but as a picture that is great and on the other hand really catches the atmosphere of the record. In the end a nice cover art is indeed something you can love but nothing that makes the music better or worse – at least in my opinion and so this won’t affect my extremely objective senses of justice…haha, ok, I don’t think I’m really a person you can call an objective reviewer because I mostly review music that I like and love and so I don’t have much to criticize at all. I’m doing so because I think this blog should be a place to find good music and not a place to destroy the work of others. — I don’t know if you relaized it, but this had nothing to do with Belly Of The Lion at all…
Ahead I called the music a hybrid of folk and indie music and I maybe explain myself for it is surely not a record you would call indie folk. And if you watch closely you won’t discover too much folk elements at all. But just calling it an indie album would do harm to it as well, because you would maybe think of such music like The Weakerthans’ album Reunion Tour (wich is not bad at all) or one of Belle And Sebastian’s masterpieces. No, this would clearly hide the americana influences (perfect example: the track Donkey) but those are not as present as to call it an americana album. You see, I can’t really describe it – just take for granted that songs like Monday Morning or Lakes Of Wine got a rich folk flavor and other tracks like the opener The Closest We Will Ever Be remind me strongly of prototypically structured indie tracks with nice guitar melodies and mellow character.
Overall Belly Of The Lion is a 2009 mid-tempo folk and/or indie highlight winning over the audience with an often somber but warm atmosphere, a very charismatic and versatile voice, nice guitar play and just great music that makes you feel satisfied and cozy. To buy the album, head over to the Western Vinyl Shop or click iTunes. More information you will find on Ola Podrida’s MySpace.
