Earlimart has a new album called Hymn And Her that comes out today, July 1st. This Los Angeles-based band have been around since 1999 (with already five albums under their belt) and took their name from the small town of Earlimart, California.
If you like boy/girl pop-indie music, this album might be worth looking into. Their main boy singer, Aaron Espinoza, he handles most of the songs, with Ariana Murray mostly doing backup singing.
The three songs that Murray sings on, "Time For Yourself", "Before It Gets Better" & "Tell Me", I thought was very good. "Tell Me" sounds very ethereal, while both "Time For Yourself" & "Before It Gets Better" sounds like very sweet pop. I kind of wanted to hear more of her easy-to-listen voice.
On the other hand, Espinoza's vocals reminds me a lot of Elliott Smith, kind of soft-spoken. Even on such bouncy songs like "Song For", "For The Birds", and "Cigarettes and Kerosene", it feels like Espinoza is bringing you down but the music seems like it was bound for happier times. There's something slightly sad about the singing and lyrics (despite the melodic poppy music):
Let's get in late, would you stay?
But you're on the phones, miles away.
Though I know it's not the same
We can fall asleep, dream of ways
But you're already in my heart.
I don't have any liner notes, so I couldn't tell you who mixed the album, but they deserved to be mentioned. There's often strange noises and foot tapping and bird chirping throughout the album. These things need to be listened on headphones to really pick up all the quirks.
Hymn and Her is out now on Majordomo Records, and If you buy the record at certain retail locations, you're also given the "Song For" 7", so that's worth going out of your way if you want a bonus with your purchase.
Also, they are doing a Summer tour (mostly in July) and stopping by a lot of in-store record appearances. Be sure to check out their tour dates on the sidebar.