Not much of a departure from the debut album, but the second offering from
Half-Handed Cloud
is another dizzyingly complex swirl of
psychedelic pop
, children's music, and Christian apologetics. Again,
's leader,
John Ringhofer
, whips through a collection of brief, interconnected songs -- this time 24 song in 33 minutes. Most of them are piano-led, but he threw in just about everything else he could get his hands on: cello, whistles, pots and pans, and more. It sounds like a really smart Sunday school class on a sugar high let loose in a music store. The supporting cast includes most of the same people involved on
Learning About Your Scale
, but members of
the Danielson Family
also help out (
Daniel Smith
recorded some of the tracks, co-produced the album, and did an admirable job of mixing what could have easily been a jarring mess with so many different sounds coming together).
"We Don't Know How It Grows,"
an epic track by
standards, clocking in at over two and a half minutes, is one of the highlights. An acoustic guitar introduces the song and handclap punctuations and an accordion-led chorus follow before a trumpet and acoustic guitar chime in the finale: brief and complex, but not haphazard.
We Haven't Just Been Told, We Have Been Loved
may not be much of a progression from its predecessor, but it's every bit as successful in conveying complicated theological ideas in the form of finely wrought, yet
lo-fi
pop
songs without a hint of preachiness. ~ Jason Nickey