Canopy Glow

iTunes Review

Anathallo’s second full-length release, Canopy Glow, could have held the same title as its debut, Floating World: never have the band sounded so subtle, with airy, built-on-cloud constructs threatening to float away if it weren’t for the occasional firmly grounded piano and lower octave vocals acting as anchor. The band makes good use of all seven members with plenty of auxiliary percussion and instruments like flugelhorn, trombone, and autoharp painting a radiantly beatific world in which to escape. “All the First Pages” is anathema to any dark and gloomy day, and the graceful “Northern Lights,” with its delicately layered vocals, recalls Seattle’s Fleet Foxes. Glistening percussive layers, acoustic guitars and ethereal keyboards drive opening track “Noni’s Field,” with strings and a gentle drum crescendo pulling it all tightly together at the end. Erica Froman’s breathy voice pulls the listener in on tracks like “Italo” and “Sleeping Torpor,” and she further sweetens the band’s sound with her gently plucked autoharp. Canopy Glow is a world apart from the band’s earlier, more rock-induced EPs (and a half a world apart from Floating World, where Anathallo softened its sound), offering refined pop music as welcome refuge from the harsher tones of everyday life. Fans of Fleet Foxes, the Decemberists and Sea Wolf will take delight.