[rating=8.00]
It’s not easy at the outset to get a handle on Finally Free, the eighth album in as many years from Daniel Romano. Romano’s obsession with psychedelic folk is well documented, but the atmospheric ambiance he imbues into songs such as “Empty Husk” and “All the Reaching Trims” informs this effort as a whole. The result is a sequence of dreamy, drifting melodies flush with hazy reflection and surreal circumspect, the sort of sound that requires one to lean in and listen to capture the full effect.
Granted, there are upbeat moments as well — the stoic delivery of “The Long Mirror of Time” allows Romano to fully vet a decidedly expressive intent — but for the most part, Romano tends to reflect a more elusive approach. The tangled, swerving set up of “Celestial Manis” boasts a middle eastern sensibility that’s both enticing and entrancing. “Between the Blades of Grass” weaves its hypnotic melody with a captivating, hypnotic spell as well as an easy, upbeat sway. It’s fascinating stuff really, with a soothing refrain that adds more than a hint of reassurance.
In fact, that soothing embrace is a key part of the appeal, and the fact that Romano played all the instruments, save occasional piano parts, and wrote, recorded, produced, engineered and mixed the album entirely on his own reflects a high minded artistic ambition. There are times when the record brings to mind the exotic allure of the Incredible String Band, the late Tom Rapp and Pearls Before Swine — that’s particularly true of songs such as “Have You Arrival” and “Gleaming Sects of Aniram” and “There Is Beauty in the Vibrant Form” — but these seemingly vintage references don’t detract from the originality Romano invests into his efforts overall. As it’s title implies, Finally Free reflects the freeform expression of an artist who rarely seems apprehensive when it comes to coloring outside the lines.
