Mojave: For a While

Today’s Daily Dose track ‘For a While’ comes to you from Vancouver band Mojave’s second album Crow’s Funeral. Mojave are lead singer/guitarist LJ and guitarist/sometimes singer Paul. They are an elusive pair, no last names given, but after hearing their album you could feel as if you know them, such are the depths to which they plunge into their emotions and experiences.

Part folkish-rock, part symphonic and entirely emotive, the album is a haunting mix of urgent, pleading vocals, delicate guitars and rich, warm strings. The instrumentation is pleasingly varied, moving from epic, almost operatic numbers full of strings like this Daily Dose track, to banjo-led ballads (the title track), with some theramin thrown in for colour on ‘Wake Up’. The lyrics are consistently poignant, and delivered so beautifully and tentatively that the emotional feel of each song is truly compelling.

There is a sense of vulnerability on this record that makes you feel as if you’ve become privy to someone’s innermost thoughts, and an honesty that makes it captivating if not a tiny bit unnerving. However, the dark secrets of this album are cut through in the middle by ‘California’, a hopeful and uplifting track that lends some sunshine to an otherwise heartwrenching record.

Crow’s Funeral is a dark, resounding album full of many different layers, both musically and emotionally, which gives a glimpse into the lives of its composers that can catch you off guard; a rare feat, and a beautiful one.

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Links

• Purchase Crow’s Funeral
• myspace.com/mojave
• Mojave.fm