Celebrants - Nickel Creek

Oh, come on. I mean...come on. This is simply incredible.

I don't always know what to say about albums. And I don't really know what to say about this album. Here's what I DO know...

The MELODIES. Ohhhhhh man the MELODIEEEEESSSSS. My goodness. They're all good. Really, it's just meeting my need for interesting and exciting melodic structures. The use of each instrument to serve the melody in different ways depending on the needs of that specific melody; it's brilliant.

It's also important to mention how INSANE the dynamics of this album are. The literal dynamics that is. The soft sections are soft, and the loud sections are loud. They genuinely use the abilities of their instruments to manipulate the dynamic quality of each section of each song. That is MUCH appreciated. That isn't to say that no one else EVER does this, however, MANY songs are pretty one volume. To re-encounter the diversity of volume that we were originally gifted by Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, etc. is a wonderfully satisfying thing.

Performances. Uhh...so...Chris Thile is the greatest mandolin player of all time. Fight me about it. Basic perspective? Yes. Is he the Messi of the mandolin? Yes. But just like Messi, it seems pretty clear that it's also just objectively true.

Of course, the Watkins siblings are cooking with gas as usual as well, with both vocals and instrumentals. And then, because Chris Thile has weird connections, Mike Elizondo is playing bass on this thing. Like...EH? Hello?? What are YOU doing here you are meant to be smokin' bones with 50 Cent. You're meant to be drinkin' coffee with Marshall Mathers. You're meant to be twiddling your thumbs with the two members of Twenty-One Pilots. In this case, though, he's playing a li'l diddy on the sad low stand-up. Bonkers.

Everyone liked that. Don't dislike this album because then you're silly to talk about. "What? Benjamin doesn't like Celebrants? Well, now we are having a silly conversation because of Benjamin's choice. We are now having a clown conversation. That's too bad because I wanted to be serious, but now we are silly." You see?

Immaculate. Pointed. Literate.

Unrelenting 10