Favourite Armchair‘s self-titled album stirs as a creative showcase of art-folk and psychedelia. Featuring a multi-instrumental ensemble, the record explores life’s fragile, domestic moments with sincere emotion and captivating vocal harmonies.
Folk guitar twangs and expressive vocal layers delight on opening track “Overflow,” where perspectives of how “something’s causing feelings of overflow” coexist with a delectably woozy soundscape. Spacey, shooting-like effects and warbly synths cap it off, setting the album in creative motion right away. Following, “In This Heat” moves with a more traditional folk pluckiness, scenic in its lyricism: “I’m on a grandiose patio, bright rays shine down upon me.” The heatwave-set descriptions and hazy acoustics consume in their sharp atmospheric sense, culminating in a lovely second half reminding of Sun City Girls in its shifts between art-folk caressing and bass-y bounciness.
“Mystery Pop” continues the album’s enchanting start, unveiling an evenly layered array of harmonious vocal psychedelia, glimmering keys, and frolicking acoustics. The reflective backing vocals lend a very natural spontaneity throughout, like participants surrounded by the warmth of a campfire, as an alluring title-touting refrain closes the track. “A Brazen Accounting For” also excels in its use of various vocal aspects, combining spoken-word takes on slippery ascents and evasive plans with solemn backing reflections and funky guitar warbles. Favourite Armchair enamors in its ability to seamlessly expand initial art-folk intrigue into stirring twists, and both “Mystery Pop” and “A Brazen Accounting For” are exemplary in their inventive maneuvering.
Another standout track, “Red Pony” compels in its slice-of-life account, navigating from bedtime stories with one’s children to “maybe after I read The Red Pony…” artistic ambitions, finding meaning in life’s fragile moments, including “reading those books and wondering whether Matthew would recommend them.” Chiming bells and percussive pitter-patter accompany these warming narrations with blissful cohesion. “Durability of London” stirs as well in its stream-of-consciousness observations and avant-garde touches, sending chills as wordless vocals and spine-tingling harmonica assemble around midpoint. “Because the durability of London…” the vocals re-appear thereafter, met by ghostly backing harmonies as the track concludes with a flourishing of synths.
An approachably serene prowess also shows on “Worthy Effort,” where tinges of blaring brass and sturdy acoustic strums intertwine; it’s an especially melodic and meditative output. Album finale “The Flowers Recede in Due Course” is an exceptional piece of songwriting, too. Wordless vocal harmonies move into gently swaying instrumentation, all while thematically exploring time’s inevitable passage. Pairing domestic wear with natural cycles, the lyricism gently accepts that “time will take away your tears and even your favourite armchair,” framing the eventual loss of physical spaces and relationships as a completely natural experience. Full of sincere emotion and melodically inventive productions, Favourite Armchair is an excellent full-length showcase.
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