Family Album

Natural Music

Feb 04, 2021 Lia Ices By Matt Conner

There’s a delicate organic beauty displayed on Lia Ices’ new full-length Family Album that fills in the gaps of the several years spanning albums from the acclaimed singer/songwriter. Eschewing the electronic turns of her previous album Ices (2014), Family Album is subdued, rooted, and no less lovely than the rest of her exquisite catalog to date.

The story around Ices’ latest work is about a cross-country move to northern California with her winemaking husband and a turn toward motherhood. In this space of nurture and nature, Ices says, “I wanted to make something without having any ulterior motives other than letting what naturally happens, happen.” The resultant compositions are largely stripped back to basic instrumentation, allowing Ices’ vocal work to expand and fill the spacious halls of songs like “Careful of Love” and “I’m Gone.”

The touches here from Ices and her late producer JR White (Girls) are riveting—the strings on “Hymn” and “I’m Gone,” the build on “Our Time,” the recorder on “Anywhere at All,” the haunting approach of “Beauty Blue.” Some tracks roll in slowly like a morning fog, while others—including the stellar lead single “Young on the Mountain”—are much more immediate, yet there’s a fragility at work throughout that binds it all together.

Family Album is a largely warm offering allowed to roam where it wants without any heavy hand at work behind it. It’s present, not plastic, and Ices’ songs are all the better for it. (www.liaices.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10

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Average reader rating: 8/10

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