All We Could Do Was Sing

Port O'Brien

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (301 ratings)

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Album Information
EDITOR'S PICK

Artist: Port O'Brien (See All Albums by Port O'Brien)
Date Released: Apr 24, 2008
Genre: Rock/Pop, Style: Pop
Label: Port O'Brien / CD Baby

Total Tracks: 11 Total Length: 38:23

eMusic Review 0

Yancey Strickler

eMusic Contributor

05.20.08

Oakland band makes exuberantly dour indie rock. Oh, and it's really good, too.

2008 | Label: Port O'Brien / CD Baby

Sure, All We Could Do Was Sing is a bit of an amalgam, its 11 songs effectively capturing what so many people love about the Decemberists and Arcade Fire and other indie luminaries, sometimes musically but more often in a sort of nervous, brainy excitement that explodes in songs like opener "I Woke Up Today," with its beginning drum pounds that I find myself wishing would continue through the whole album, like some indigenous revival. But the record does slow and swoon, and singer Van Pierszalowski has the perfect, broken voice to lead those disappointments and slow crumbles to the floor. "I'm doing okay for a young man/ I've got a place to stay," he sings in "Fisherman's Son" (my favorite track), sounding a bit like Neil Young on After the Gold Rush, a boy realizing he is destined to be a man he distrusts. There's a heartbreaking sweetness to his lament: "I am a fisherman's son/ That is what I will become."

The theme of All We Could Do Was Sing is desperation, but not, interestingly, resignation. Pierszalowski and Cambria Goodwin understand the slow death of life, and they react with either a quiet fortitude ("I'm not ready… read more »

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music = catharsis

truelager

if you don't like a little melancholy in your music, then save your downloads. there's enough britney to go 'round for such simpletons. some musicians create "sad" music because it's cathartic, both for artist and listener. others prefer "happy" music. hey, whatever blows your hair back...but don't assume music that resides predominantly among the minor chords as having no merit.

A Favorite

Shaesplace

The naysayers might not have given this album their full attention. This is a concept album with many complex layers very worthy of your attention. One of my favorite eMusic finds. It's full of well crafted songs and allegory. And the eMusic reviewer was right on about the depressed-but-not- resigned tone. Cautious optimism for someone feeling asea.

Not a review

oldmanj716

I haven't heard anymore than the samples of this album. I just wanted to warn everyone against having different taste than ole Hoofprints down there...it makes him angry.

Self Indulgent Crap

Hoofprints

Who decided that music was supposed to be pretentious crap that was no fun to hear. This stuff truly sucks. Boring, whining, tragically un-hip drivel passing for music. If music is supposed to be this miserable, then why bother at all? This isnt "exuberantly dour", its exceedingly stupid. And it isnt "really good too" its pitiful and trite. These guys should get some therapy and spend time working on what ails them rather than putting out this junk. Makes me wanna barf!

Bright Eyes what?

ashleycwoods

I keep thinking the rocker songs sound more like Modest Mouse instead. And "Pigeonhold" is such an ode to Crazy-Horse era Neil Young. And some of the really slow ones, like "Will You Be There?" take me back to the slower, 'After the Gold Rush" Young stuff. It's a different album, sure, and sometimes I think it sounds ridiculous when they are belting out stuff at the same time ("I Woke Up Today"--like, what are you, the cast of Oliver!?).

sing

jitterbugboogie

I'm really enjoying this album at the moment, I thought you should know.

Wrong turn

surfer_rosa

Dissapointed. I miss the lofi and more textured approach on The Wind and Swell. If you ask me that's the better album by far (no idea why emusic has 'picked' this). The production doesn't suit the songs and makes them sound like just another indie band. It's a shame because they had a unique sound on the previous record, and are really good live. Download Wind and Swell instead.

Say what?

indiesoc

Just because a band plays folky music and has with a singer with a slightly whiney voice does not mean it sounds like Bright Eyes. Just because a band has a few soaring choruses and uses a cello does not make it an Arcade Fire knock-off. The influence I'm hearing most here is Neil Young, with a little America mixed in, and updated with the creaky sounds of a Pinetop Seven. I found only four songs here worth downloading -- 1 (a better version of the first track off their previous album), 3, 9 ("Horse With No Name," anyone?), and 10 (previously released as a single). The rest of the album failed to leave an impression. Port O'Brien is fun to see live, and it is there, perhaps, that their "communal" approach demonstrates some elements of Arcade Fire (though Akron/Family is a closer match).

Silly people.

at__sea

Port O'Brien is definitely no Bright Eyes/Arcade Fire imitation band. These kids know what music is all about, believe me. You shouldn't talk until you see 'em live.

Interesting

gingershultz

As the person above said, reminds me a lot of Bright Eyes, but I really like Bright Eyes. I like this band as well. As soon as I heard it, i immediately liked it. In response to the hackneyed comment, whocares if music is "so 2004". Music, just like fashion and history repeats itself, and there are a heck of a lot of bands that sound like "outdated" trends......who gives a crap. If it's good, it's good.