Review of The Album Leaf’s “A Chorus of Storytellers”

Among various mellow rock acts who aren’t household names but play mega venues like Red Rocks worldwide, The Album Leaf’s music and stature stand tall (nodding meekly with hands in pockets) somewhere between Iron and Wine and Sigur Ros. On A Chorus of Storytellers, mastermind/frontman Jimmy LaValle once again proves he isn’t a spectacular wordsmith – like a derivative musician who needs to widen his exposure to sounds, his lyrics suggest he could benefit from studying poetry for a bit—but his calm, enigmatic techno-suites admirably pick up where Broken Social Scene’s epic electronic instrumentals left off, with a little headphone pop-rock tinge thrown in. “Tied Knots,” for one, sounds a lot like Brian Eno’s classic Music for Airports – living up to Eno’s intention to make incredibly beautiful pre-flight music that says “you might die, but it doesn’t really matter.”