Papermoons, Papermoons (7″)

Okay, so I’ve put off listening to Papermoons self-titled debut 7″ for a little while now. I could be scrupulously honest and talk about how I’m a lazy ass who forgets things, or wax poetic about how having a kid and no longer having the space/time to review stuff not on headphones. But I’m not gonna do that.

Instead, I’m going to say that heck, I was just waiting for the right time, the right moment to finally listen to this record. And this is it. It’s a quiet night, cold outside, and I’m all alone in the house except for the dogs, listening to the record spin in a mostly-darkened room. It’s absolutely perfect. The music made by the duo of Matt Clark and Daniel Hawkins flows out of the speakers and settles over the dimly-lit room like a warm, soft, gently worn blanket.

And it’s good stuff. Delicate, gorgeous melodies with plenty of deliberate, finger-picked guitars (think Iron and Wine’s “Jesus the Mexican Boy”), the occasional harmonica, and wispy, nearly Simon & Garfunkel-esque vocal harmonies all add up to some truly captivating folk-rock. The four songs on Papermoons wouldn’t feel out of place on a Mojave 3 or Red House Painters album, and that’s hardly poor company.

Clark and Hawkins layer sounds beautifully one on top of the other, coming close at points even to Explosions in the Sky (plus vocals, of course) while still staying true to their overall sound. On lead-off track “Honest,” there’s this great, My Bloody Valentine-sounding warble lurking in the background beneath the guitars and voices, which makes it the most “rock” song on here. On the second A-side track, though, “California,” Papermoons veers closer to the country side of the musical spectrum than any of the rest of the record. Then there’s the B-side, with “Bad Note,” which sounds almost desperate in its plaintiveness but remains low-key and sweet, and “Exist,” which is probably my favorite track and the one that epitomizes, at least to me, the Papermoons thing as a whole.

(I’m not absolutely positive, by the way, but I’d bet a fair amount that the latter two tracks are flipped on the vinyl; I’m guessing that the song that starts off talking about “bad notes,” it’s probably, well, “Bad Notes” and not “Exist.”)

End Note: I am feeling a bit peeved to learn that some of the 7″s came with a CD of all four tracks and an extra freebie track, to boot. Which is fine, except that, uh, my Interpunk-purchased one didn’t, meaning that I’m restricted to listening to these excellent, excellent songs only on my decidedly non-portable turntable. Dammit.