Aviary Ghost - Memory Is A Hallway

Aviary Ghost - Somewhere Else

Aviary Ghost - The Brain Is A House

In a late February podcast of “Have You Heard,” Bradley and Adam extolled the virtues of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago. For Emma is a beautifully depressing CD that was the result of Justin Vernon escaping to a solitary winter in Wisconsin after his relationships with his band and girlfriend faded away. For my first assignment on this site I was handed a CD with a similar back-story, but without the extra kick in the groin of a break-up. Like For Emma, Aviary Ghost’s Memory is a Hallway is the result of spending isolated winters in the Midwest, Michigan in this case. For Charlie Crimando and Stephen Kemsley of Aviary Ghost, the snowy isolation inspired gloomy topics of conversation, but without the extra groin kickers they retained their folk-rock meets pop optimism. Pretty, but not quite beautiful, Memory is whimsical meditation on mortality.

Aviary Ghost sets an atmosphere beyond simple folk or pop by including subtle experimental tinkering soundscapes in the midst of playful more traditional acoustic ditties. The result is somewhere between Wilco and Belle and Sebastian. Throw in a dose of Badly Drawn Boy and you’ve got a good idea what they sound like.

They can do the sad ballad with the best of them and there are other times when they do a lighter upbeat hootenanny waltz barbershop quartet type thing. It’s the latter moments that keep the album it in the category of good summer time fare, which based on their snowy album cover, is probably not what they set out to do. Memory is a strong and consistent album that has convinced me to check out their live show. It’s too bad that the back-story and certain moments cause a Bon Iver comparison reflex, which is too much to live up to. In the end, Memory is a creative, better than average, pleasant, and friendly listen.