10287 - AUSTIN PLAINE (2015)
AUSTIN PLAINE
''AUSTIN PLAINE''
SEPTEMBER 11 2015
37:41
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1 Never Come Back Again 03:16
2 Hard Days 03:11
3 Your Love 02:57
4 The Other Side of Town 03:07
5 Houston 03:20
6 Only Human 03:11
7 Reckoning Plan 03:49
8 The Cost 03:19
9 Wait 04:01
10 The Hell If I Go Home 03:44
11 Beautiful 03:41
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REVIEW
Timothy Monger
A deep sense of wanderlust imbues the self-titled debut by indie folk singer/songwriter Austin Plaine. A native of Minneapolis, the young bard takes cues from veteran Midwestern ramblers like Conor Oberst and Minnesota's favorite son, Bob Dylan, framing them within a modern folk-pop framework. A sojourn to Nashville in 2013 connected him with WeVolve Music, an artist development firm, among other things, and they helped usher his early efforts into what would eventually become this 11-song LP. Wide-eyed and earnest, Plaine uses the musical and emotional palette of the Mumford generation to tell his tales of the vagabond life and the roads taken to achieve it. Soaring harmonic choruses are hoisted atop boot-stomping strummers that feature banjo, mandolin, and piano churning together in exultant rhythms. Overall, it's a pleasant and hopeful sound, if a familiar one. Driving tales of love and inspiration like "Wait" and "Beautiful" are effective enough, but on tracks like "Hard Days" and "Houston," Plaine's tales of downtrodden Americana grit just don't feel lived-in enough to be believable. Like many on the pop end of the early-2010s indie folk movement, he uses folk as a starting point, but his acoustic toolbox is frosted with a smattering of digital effects and the type of robust sonic grandeur that will help him get played on the radio. Prior to the album's release, Plaine's big-hearted mandolin anthem "Your Love," complete with a thumping bass drum and distant Lumineers-inspired "hey" shouted rhythmically in the background, actually received a choice placement in a MasterCard commercial. While this type of innocuous contemporary fare may earn him his 15 minutes, a lasting career is built on deeper stuff. While he shows flashes of craft on his debut, Plaine may need to travel farther than Nashville to acquire the kind of hard-won world-weariness he seems to be striving for.
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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Timothy Monger
Minneapolis native Austin Plaine writes country-tinged folk-pop, taking inspiration from artists like Ryan Adams, Elliott Smith, and fellow Midwesterners Bob Dylan and Bright Eyes. After heading to Nashville in 2013, he began working on the songs that would eventually become his self-titled debut album. Originally released through a Noisetrade campaign, his visibility increased when one of his songs was placed in a Mastercard commercial. Plaine soon signed with Razor & Tie imprint Washington Square, who gave his debut a proper release in 2015.
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WEBSITE
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TO THE TOP
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''AUSTIN PLAINE''
SEPTEMBER 11 2015
37:41
**********
1 Never Come Back Again 03:16
2 Hard Days 03:11
3 Your Love 02:57
4 The Other Side of Town 03:07
5 Houston 03:20
6 Only Human 03:11
7 Reckoning Plan 03:49
8 The Cost 03:19
9 Wait 04:01
10 The Hell If I Go Home 03:44
11 Beautiful 03:41
**********
REVIEW
Timothy Monger
A deep sense of wanderlust imbues the self-titled debut by indie folk singer/songwriter Austin Plaine. A native of Minneapolis, the young bard takes cues from veteran Midwestern ramblers like Conor Oberst and Minnesota's favorite son, Bob Dylan, framing them within a modern folk-pop framework. A sojourn to Nashville in 2013 connected him with WeVolve Music, an artist development firm, among other things, and they helped usher his early efforts into what would eventually become this 11-song LP. Wide-eyed and earnest, Plaine uses the musical and emotional palette of the Mumford generation to tell his tales of the vagabond life and the roads taken to achieve it. Soaring harmonic choruses are hoisted atop boot-stomping strummers that feature banjo, mandolin, and piano churning together in exultant rhythms. Overall, it's a pleasant and hopeful sound, if a familiar one. Driving tales of love and inspiration like "Wait" and "Beautiful" are effective enough, but on tracks like "Hard Days" and "Houston," Plaine's tales of downtrodden Americana grit just don't feel lived-in enough to be believable. Like many on the pop end of the early-2010s indie folk movement, he uses folk as a starting point, but his acoustic toolbox is frosted with a smattering of digital effects and the type of robust sonic grandeur that will help him get played on the radio. Prior to the album's release, Plaine's big-hearted mandolin anthem "Your Love," complete with a thumping bass drum and distant Lumineers-inspired "hey" shouted rhythmically in the background, actually received a choice placement in a MasterCard commercial. While this type of innocuous contemporary fare may earn him his 15 minutes, a lasting career is built on deeper stuff. While he shows flashes of craft on his debut, Plaine may need to travel farther than Nashville to acquire the kind of hard-won world-weariness he seems to be striving for.
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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Timothy Monger
Minneapolis native Austin Plaine writes country-tinged folk-pop, taking inspiration from artists like Ryan Adams, Elliott Smith, and fellow Midwesterners Bob Dylan and Bright Eyes. After heading to Nashville in 2013, he began working on the songs that would eventually become his self-titled debut album. Originally released through a Noisetrade campaign, his visibility increased when one of his songs was placed in a Mastercard commercial. Plaine soon signed with Razor & Tie imprint Washington Square, who gave his debut a proper release in 2015.
**********
WEBSITE
**********
TO THE TOP
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