John Vanderslice, San Francisco's Tiny Telephone helmsman, stills reigns supreme as the nicest guy in the indie-rock universe. His jump from his six-album label home at Barsuk to Austin, Texas' Dead Oceans brings his seventh longplayer, Romanian Names. After fretting over the Iraq war and his French girlfriend's passport troubles during 2007's Emerald City, Vanderslice is poised to return to the introspective character studies of albums like Pixel Revolt (2005) and Cellar Door (2004). Romanian Names' pensive title track recounts the tale of a persevering Olympic gymnast, whereas the dreamy survivor's tale "Too Much Time" sees its protagonist staying warm with a eucalyptus fire and pining for his lost love. "Freedom is overrated," indeed.
Vanderslice also told Stereogum that he kept of Montreal, Grandaddy and Beatles albums to listen to between writing sessions. His main goal was to write a "bunch of shorter, faster songs that were all about melody lines." In addition to the usual "Vanderslice sound," Romanian Names features flutes, clarinets, saxophones, marimba, viola, and even the Swedish nyckelharpa. Longtime producer Scott Solter joined in the fray again. Lyrically V-Slice says, "a lot of songs are about the difficulty of being in love. When you're in a very, very close relationship, there's a mirror in front of you all the time. So a lot of the songs, for me, are about that mirrored self and that almost suffocating thing that happens." Though the relationships are bleak on the album, Vanderslice assures that he's happily in love. How frreakin' adorable.~ Kyle Lemmon (Prefixmag)
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