II

II is the third album of the psychedelic folk band Espers. It is a dark kind of folk that is more subtle in its darkness than a band like Lankum. To quote the Pitchfork review: "intricate, vaguely menacing folk songs are smarter, sharper, and more relentlessly compelling than their trappings might suggest". For me personally it just sounds a bit too perfect and lovely and it misses some rawness and fragility. Still a good album though.

Psychedelic folk? Sign me up! This is super interesting. Such a relaxing but still trippy vibe. I definitely need to listen to them more!

It's a bit difficult to truly describe the feelings that album this album evoke accurately. I would start off with saying that it's awesomesauce. Absolutely bonkers. Cool beans. Amazeballs.

This is really nice. 4 stars.

very nice spooky-ish fall weather listening

I listened to this at the beach with my son today, and loved it. I've saved this for a revisit.

Very good

I dug this though it made for a wierd and ominous workout session. I am there for New Wierd Americana neo-folk.

Espers take a page out of Fairport Convention's folk dirges, and infuse the latter with all sorts of spooky tones and moody psychedelic setpieces. Pretty good music with an excellent lead vocalist, yet I sometimes felt that the length of some tracks was not always warranted, especially during the first half of the record. But your mileage on that might depend on whether you think compositions moving at a glacial pace end up becoming fascinating, or, conversely, take a turn to the linear when they pile up this way. I'm a huge fan of Low, (lovely "Children Of Stone" is not so far from Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's mark, to be fair), so I can get where people who love this act come from, and some moments in the second half of the record are indeed gorgeous. Yet I have to admit that overall, I prefer Fairport Convention's initial strand of folk music to this admittedly well-crafted reenactment. ---- 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 4. 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3.5) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ----- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 56 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 72 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 133 (including this one) --- Émile. Ça y est, j'ai *enfin* répondu (en deux temps). Tu trouveras ça sous les reviews des disques de Blackalicious et Alexisonfire au dessus.

Proggy psychedelic music, of the "sacred altar in the haunted forest" variety

This is a cool indie atmospheric electro folk sort of record. Its cool off the start.

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Dead king

Weird, unsettling, and darkly seductive.

Gothic folk, good stuff

From the opening notes I thought I was going to love this. In the end I really didn't. By Dead King I was down from 4 stars first impression to 2 stars. So I guess fair to split difference.

I don't want to compare to another song, but the beginning of it sounds like another song. And even at 8 mins... I'm sure someone knows. Maybe there's even a lady who knows. I didn't get enough of the lyrics to comment on any of the stories. Overall, not that much there for me.

II was good, not amazing, but a really interesting listen that was never bad but was pretty atmospheric and it never really came across as if it was intended for something else like a soundtrack like a lot of heavily instrumental stuff can. 3.

Wow that first track is a rip off of Taurus by Spirit.

Pretty interesting, laid back album. Sort of wavered a bit on this there were a few four moments but mostly a three.

Boy I can’t wait for III

This was in a similarly folksy vein to yesterday’s LP (Auri’s S/T), but unlike that album exceeded my expectations of the genre. Thanks to Espers’ willingness to dig into electronic and heavier guitar tones, this feels like folk on steroids and at times played with crossing into noise which I enjoyed. Some tracks are perhaps a bit too long and could’ve used some editing, but this was a nice shakeup of what could’ve been another folksy slog.

This was uh..something. Finished but. Hm

Game of Thrones type music

Espers is categorized as psychedelic folk, and on "II" its sometimes folk-focused and at other times heavily psychedelic. It rarely felt like there was a good balance between the two.

Folk, psychedelic folk, New Weird America. Muy rollo. Un 2.

Not a top album

Not interested 2