The 1900s: Cold and Kind

The 1900s are a 7 piece band from Chicago. What makes them special is their combining diversity of instruments along with harmonic boy-girl vocals. Their use of instruments and the polyphonic sound falling out consequently give an orchestral feel to their mainly mellow -psychedelic pop songs. (And some of you know HOW I love multi-piece bands doing orchestral sounding unique music no matter what the genre is! i.e: Revere, Belle and Sebastian).

It’s easy to see how rhythmic and coherent these 7 friends work together. Even though some of their tunes are heading to slightly different directions you can hear the integrity of their sound feeling their love and souls moulded with what they are doing. Their desire for music pushes them to release an EP – Plume Delivery- even before they had tangible live performances.

And that’s how some of us heard of this band in the first place. Bring The Good Boys Home has been the most drawing tune in this work with its calm female vocal and Camera Obscura-esque warm melody. Adorned with many instruments again such as organ and strings… A Coming Age similarly has this heavy-hearted twee feel wording out with Stuart Murdoch like soft male vocals. Stuart Murdoch of (another 7 piece) Belle & Sebastian whom the band would be compared to often later.

Plume Delivery received significant praises from indie critics, blogs and fans – making great shows supporting Midlake and Iron & Wine surely helped this – leaving them in anticipation for a brand new debut album. And now is the time for this highly anticipated release. Debut Cold & Kind is coming out on October 12th with a forerunning show featuring Drug Rug and The Singleman Affair.

Cool & Kind doesn’t let down the anticipation for this album guaranteeing to go beyond Plume Delivery’s success already. It’s a dreamy, emotional record with remarkable alt-country tones converged to psychedelic – orchestral jangle pop.

No Delay is a mellow entrance including praise-worthy piano and string contributions, setting you ready to intimate the whole album just in that way. I think, it is like a positively more complicated Duke Special.

Georgia is a catchy-twee pop song fairly reflecting Belle & Sebastian songs we love wholeheartly. Vocals are so softly smooth in harmony with female back vocals and vivacity of the arrangement that you can’t help pressing the replay button untill you know the lyrics by heart.

When I Say Go is another catchy, joyful melody reminding me of Mia Doi Todd only without electronic downtempo beats. The 1900s kindly let you hear this lovely tune from their official website. It is worthy to check out!

Cold & Kind has one of the richest intros in the album. A calm guitar rising deeply, bringing back The Velvet Underground’s dark – sad artistic sound in a more pop way. Going on in a monotonous direction accompanied by consistent boy-girl vocals except outstanding guitar movements in between. Don’t take “monotonous” as a negative word here. I mean it is far away from catchiness and also hard laid with calm-relaxing alt-country sounds.

Similarly City Water is reflecting the country feel enriched with strings. Soft vocals going “hey hey” and the depressive kind of touches to guitar reminds me of Will Oldham at his best as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy.

Acutiplantar Dude is a touching song about a late friend of band who lost his life because of a drug overdose. It’s about him staying alive in minds even though he died. It’s an immensely emotional song again reflecting 70s The Velvet Underground sounds along with the wonderful My Morning Jacket’s catastrophic country tones!

Two Ways and The Medium Way are my favorite songs in Cold & Kind. Amazing two tracks get me excited each time I listen and sing along. Two Ways is standing out with its My Morning Jacket style echoing vocals. This is simply admirable. The dark sound of guitar and dashing chorus deserve double thumbs up!

The Medium Way is another beauty formed of amazingly soft female vocals, crashing strings and hasty beats. One of those tunes you would adore listening live. The ending in particular, should be a blast when playing on the stage!

Supernatural is like a transition song at first sight. I didn’t like it at first as it felt like a filler to me at first listen. But then it grows rapidly more you pay attention on lyrics and suppress the mellow melody. Towards ending you hear trampets which give a rich feel to the song.

Wool of the Lamb is another mellow tune recalling Camera Obscura and Belle & Sebastian considering the misty melody and boy-girl vocals. The alt-country fractions hidden in the chords makes the tune sound deeper! This song is followed by a wee acoustic tune closing the record with its slow melody and simple – sincere male singing.

The 1900s are giving some gigs these days to introduce these lovely tunes and impress more fans with their dynamic live performance. Oakley Hall, Division Day and Castanets are the names they are touring with.

Listening to Cold and Kind again and again I think you shouldn’t miss these shows. More importantly you shouldn’t miss the album if the sound of a tepid combination of The Velvet Underground with My Morning Jacket and jangle masters Belle & Sebastian addresses to your music ears. I know you will enjoy it muchly!

The 1900s – The Medium Way (removed by request of Parasol Records)
The 1900s – Two Ways

The 1900s on iTunes
The 1900s on eMusic

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