This is ambient music, so there are no catchy chorus hooks to hum along to and no triumphant chord changes to demand your attention. The album begins and ends with the sound of rain recorded in the musician’s backyard, a fitting bookend for a record as unobtrusive as this one. Like falling rain, the music in Endless Falls can act as soothing background noise, or, if given an active listen, a catalyst for endless melancholic musings.
At times you may find yourself bobbing your head to beats that barely exist, buried deep beneath swirling harmonic drones and intricate, otherworldly textures. The inclusion of acoustic instruments such as strings and piano gives the record a more organic feel, but I would not go so far as to say it adds warmth. This is, first and foremost, a record that puts space between itself and its listeners in the sincere hope that they will be the ones to bridge the gap with their own thoughts and experiences.
British multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Sophie Madeleine wrote Love. Life. Ukelele. while working on her master’s degree in songwriting at Bath Spa University. She put the album up for sale on the Internet last year with the help of Bandcamp (www.bandcamp.com), an online digital music company. This year, Love. Life. Ukelele. became the first vinyl release of BCWax, a new “unlabel” from Bandcamp that hopes to provide its customers with something that can’t be downloaded: a beautiful, collectible piece of art they can hold in their hands. The artwork for the vinyl release is by Dan Stiles, who has also worked with the likes of Sonic Youth, Death Cab for Cutie and Feist and who is slated to provide all the future artwork for BCWax releases.
Love. Life. Ukelele. is a collection of pleasantly simple pop songs. It won’t blow anyone away with its originality, but it is solid from top to bottom. The instrumentation (often led by a ukelele, though Madeleine also adds guitar, keys, glockenspiel, melodica, organ and percussion, all played by herself) is eccentric enough to hold your attention, and, most importantly, Madeleine has the sort of effortless voice that can carry a cliche as far as it needs to go.
The album won’t make anyone’s Top 10 list this year, but it is definitely worth a listen if you have a penchant for folky pop music.
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