alright i don't know anything about this band other than they have a cool name and people like them. they're folk too i think. let's do it TRACK BY TRACK 1 SUN IT RISES. wooow. for some strange reason the intro made my skin crawl a bit but my expectations were soon knocked out of the water with the gorgeous lush guitar and the overall dreamy atmosphere this evokes. and that heavier guitar that comes in is crazy good. great introduction and it has got me very excited for sure. 9/10 2 WHITE WINTER HYMNAL. yeah. just so lush and gorgeous. you can really immerse yourself in every instrument because of the crisp production and the harmonies are great, which isn't something i find myself saying much. to me it sounds like if alvvays made folk music, which is probably a weird comparison but that's how i think of it. very pretty, i'm impressed. 9/10 3 RAGGED WOOD. it's like that shining carefree advertisement music where people are smiling and laughing and running through the grass and picking flowers and having fun but instead of being a torturous waste of time that a quick gouging of the eyes would be welcome to replace, you feel like the person in that ad, running through the grass and having fun despite the fact you're running through grass and picking flowers. the music's cool too. 9/10 4 TIGER MOUNTAIN PEASANT SONG. a nice guitar picking song that still manages to be lush and textured despite just being a simple guitar and his vocals. 8/10 5 QUIET HOUSES. this is just so strong and so solid. it does everything the other songs did for me as well as having a very cool piano breakdown and build up. 9/10 6 HE DOESN'T KNOW WHY. only a little weaker but still manages to hit everything right. nothing else to add. 9/10 7 HEARD THEM STIRRING. very evocative and slightly medieval, soundtrack core. 8/10 8 YOUR PROTECTOR. it's another song, surprisingly. not so surprisingly, it's good. 8/10 9 MEADOWLARKS. man the atmosphere is so so good when they hit it fully. very beautiful. 8/10 10 BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS. this band made stomp and holler adjacent music and made it way more than listenable, crazy. this is gorgeous stuff, really. this is when the happy go lucky flower pickers start crying all over the grass. 9/10 11 OLIVER JAMES. weaker but works as a closer weirdly enough. chill. amazing vocal performance. 7/10 and here i was expecting some probably middling indie folk pop band trudging their way through eleven tracks. this album is lush and packed with gorgeous melodies and harmonies over such sweet production. i can see myself coming back to this, maybe when it's a bit sunnier. it's not, if you didn't know. 9/10