Calling an album \u201ccuddly And warm\u201d doesn\u2019t evoke the same mystery and edginess as calling it, say, Beasts<\/i>. Besides Beasts<\/i>, hand-over-fist, makes for such a supercool title. But antithetical to its name, this disc is, in fact, a cozy album. <\/p>\n
The Chocolate Horse (a supercool band name at that) isn\u2019t a conventionally \u201ccozy\u201d band. The band\u2019s roots are firmly clasped to the dirt of folk music. But their music isn\u2019t the simple folksy \u201cwear my heart on sleeve\u201d lyrically focused folk, nor is it the flatteringly pastoral and ornately orchestral type of folk. The Chocolate Horse sometimes performs live as a one-piece band, which is not hard to imagine at all, since their songs, even in their fully-realized forms, still tightly cling on to the simplicity of their germ.<\/p>\n
But The Chocolate Horse also sometimes plays live as a complete band, and thank goodness that\u2019s what they do \u2013 performing as a six-piece \u2013 on Beasts<\/i>. Incorporating instruments such as keyboards, vibraphone, saw and bone, and flute in an all-inclusive musical lineup, the band creates a sophisticated indie folk sound that couldn\u2019t be far from either indie rock or folk: prime examples, \u201cEscape All Responsibility\u201d and \u201cCharacters Of Egypt.\u201d Little hints of keyboards provide fleeting but strong impressions on songs dominated by the acoustic guitar, the piano, and the flute, and other whimsical instruments, creating a complicated and titillating world beneath the plain exterior.<\/p>\n
Although The Chocolate Horse\u2019s music is comforting, it is not too accessible in the pop music sense. One of the main reasons is band frontman and founder Jason Snells, whose vocals are dry and slightly boorish, albeit in a good way. His tad indifferent singing might add a know-nothing rustic accent, but does very little to pep up the poppiest of cuts \u2013 like the buoyant \u201cAll About You\u201d \u2013 and elevate it to instant adorability. For the occasional rock numbers (like \u201cFools Gold\u201d and \u201cFound Another Way\u201d) that have the laidback stoner feel of bands like Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr., Snells\u2019s detached vocals fit too perfectly. <\/p>\n
Beasts<\/i> is rife with complex undercurrents, even though on the surface it is a raw folk record. It is in fact an artsy rock album in the guise of a simple acoustic one. The beauty of Beasts<\/i> is how The Chocolate Horse lets the creature in it exist at its most virile, while at the same time taming it to absolute perfection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":30786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8757],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-42460","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-chocolate-horse","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42460"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}