Review: The Acre - "Cerca Trova" + CD Release Show TONIGHT

The Acre's latest, Cerca Trova, starts with a single, jarring piano chord, a clearing of the throat that ensures that listeners are paying full attention; and this is an album that deserves listeners full attention.  Opening track "Stereo" is propelled by rich piano and a thumping bass drum, a perfect opening track that highlights the strengths of the band.  They paint sonic landscapes that envelope the listener with subtleties and nuances.  That vision manifests itself in the songwriting, arrangements and the record as a whole.

These ten songs inhabit the well worn path between folk and rock traditions.  "The Singer" is a soft ballad that features Nick Murphy and Courtney Cavanaugh's dual male/female vocals that pop up throughout the album.  At the other end of the spectrum is "A Dagger & The Cane" which trades acoustic guitars for crunchy distortion.  One highlight, "Guilty Soul" finds a soulful middle ground with shared vocals, singalong chorus and a bouncy rhythm.

The Acre - Guilty Soul

Another standout is "Build", a moody burner that features evocative piano fills and shimmering atmospherics before building to a crescendo and devolving into swirling, effects-laden guitar noise.  The band is at their best when they let themselves experiment and explore sonic textures, and they close the album in just that way with the sprawling "Hemingway".  The epic, eight minute track starts fairly simply - open-chord electric strums over subtle noise and confessional lyrics.  At the two-minute mark the song ebbs and begins to reform.  Simple bass, guitar arpeggios build and explode in a wall of guitar and feedback before fading again.  It's stunning.

Get Cerca Trova from the band's bandcamp page, or come out to their CD release show TONIGHT at TTs in Cambridge.  Tickets here.  Tonight's show is fully VV-endorsed and is guaranteed to to be an amazing time.  The Acre will share the bill with the fantastic Pearl and the Beard and hometown favorites Kingsley Flood.  Speaking of which, watch this amazing video of Kingsley Flood playing a new track "Mannequin Man"