Album Details

• Artist: Fjord Rowboat
• Album: Saved The Compliments For Morning
• Label: Unsigned
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: kev_stev on 2008-06-03

Hailing from Toronto, Fjord Rowboat is a five-piece band intent on immediately establishing atmosphere through ambiance.  The cover of their first, self-released full-length album, Saved the Compliments for Morning, is a starkly beautiful portrait of white and black trees and leaves over a sky-blue backdrop-a collage of nature's elements that captures both the beauty of autumn and coldness of winter.  The music of Fjord Rowboat is as aesthetic as their album's artwork: chiming and swirling guitar reverb and airy vocals engage the listener's ears, submerging them in the band's sonic flurries.  The opening song, "Carried Away," captures the musical approach of the entire album: sprawling bass lines, an accessible, but densely layered, melody, and reverberating guitar.  This combination is simplistic but successful, drawing Fjord Rowboat comparisons to early Death Cab for Cutie albums, like We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes, from their arrangement and layering of melodies, low-fi drums, and drowned out vocals over large guitars.

However, Compliments does show signs of repetition by the album's end; the pace of the album and the structures of songs are predominantly invariable, as Craig Gloster's wispy vocals rarely fluctuate and the guitars incessantly screech and echo.  But while Compliments  is surely not going to raise any music theorists' eyebrows, it makes for a successful shoegaze or indie-rock (whatever that means nowadays) album, with plenty of atmospheric ear-candy to envelop the listener.

User Reviews and Comments

on 2008-06-03 dscanland Said:

Thats a fantastic review Kev. I think I might have to check Fjord Rowboat now.
Not Rated