Port O'Brien - All WeCould Do Was Sing

Thu 8th May, 2008 in Music Reviews

Band references are a music journalists stock-in-trade. So what happens when a band comes along that is clearly more influenced by their surroundings and environment than anything they may have heard on the radio? We get stuck with superlatives like awe-inspiring, heartfelt, and stunning, any one of which could describe Alaska’s Port O’Brien, and their debut album All We Could Do Was Sing.

There’s a confluence of styles on Sing, although songwriters Van Pierszalowski and Cambria Goodwin do a good job of carrying a mood throughout. Folk, pop, rock, and quiet accoustic numbers all make an appearance. The band members lives clearly have a big influence on their music. Pierszalowski works on his father’s fishing boat (his songs can usually be identified by their open spaces, intricate melodies, and lyrical references to fishes and boats), while Goodwin manages a local bakery. They write seperately, and bring their parts together, but none of the songs feel disjointed or awkward. Instead, accomplished numbers like the delicate Stuck On A Boat, the folky My Eyes Won’t Shut, and the rawkish Pigeonhold show a pair of songwriters with a keen ear for the ways in which vocals and instruments can blend together to acheive a mood. I Woke Up Today is the opening number and first single from the album, but it’s uptempo beats and shouted vocals aren’t really representative of the rest of the album.

Pierszalowsky handles most of the vocal duties, and he works better which he’s softly crooning his lines, evoking feelings of despair and hope in equal measure – he is clearly battling his surroundings, but feels like winning is a real possibility. Penultimate track Close The Lid is the only lengthy track – none of the tracks on this album drag or feel like filler, although some of them won’t stick in the memory as well as others.

All We Could Do Was Sing is an argument for an artists upbringing and environment being the key influence on their music, rather than whats on their IPod. Even the more upbeat and folky songs still feel like the work of songwriters who are isolated and separated from the world, searching for meaning in their existence. It will be interesting to see if they can carry this mood to a second album, but in the meantime, listeners looking for a varied and complex album can do no better than this.

All We Could Do Was Sing will be released on May 10 through Secret Service