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The Abramson Singers

Folkpop band from British Columbia, Canada.

Vancouver singer-songwriter Leah Abramson and her band The Abramson Singers released their sophomore album, Late Riser on May 14th, 2013.

Produced by Colin Stewart (Dan Mangan, Brasstronaut), this album finds the Singers with lush band arrangements, relatively upbeat tempos, retro organs and catchy melodies. Begun at the Banff Centre Indie Band Residency with Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire), Tony Berg (Jakob Dylan) and Shawn Everett (Weezer), Late Riser explores new pop and indie rock sensibilities, but not without a firm grounding in folk songwriting.

Thematically Late Riser is a continuation on the subject matter of their previous self-titled album (2010), with songs of longing, loss and heartbreak alongside historically inspired songs about the Métis rebel Louis Riel (the French-English hybrid, “Marguerite,” and beautifully somber “Red River Valley”).

Along with her talented band (including members of Dan Mangan’s band, Petunia & The Vipers and Snowblink), and special guests (Sam Parton of The Be Good Tanyas, Old-time fiddler/singer-songwriter Rayna Gellert, Jesse Zubot, and Josh Grange of KD Lang’s band), The Abramson singers have put together an album of extraordinary beauty not soon to be forgotten.

The Abramson Singers, a collection of various Vancouver musicians fronted by the gloriously gifted voice(s) of Leah Abramson deliver here an almost perfect confection of expertly crafted songs that ring out clear as a bell with Abramson’s crystal delivery supported by some excellent arrangements and empathetic playing. It’s an album that offers some striking folk tinged songs cosseted by wafts of accordion and pipe organ and then flies into the stratosphere of sunshine pop harmonies with chiming guitars and sixties styled keyboard accompaniment. Above all else it’s a celebration of the art of the singer with Abramson multitracked at times and at others supported by some well chosen harmony singers.

A tantalisingly short instrumental, Factory Reprise raises the curtain before the acapella Liftoff Canon features Abramson’s kaleidoscopic multitracked vocals set over a male voiced backing sounding for all the world like the vocoded part of Laurie Anderson’s Oh Superman. The fresh faced Jack Of Diamonds follows, a jetliner of a song as it soars boosted by some gutsy guitar fills as Abramson proves that she can out do Kathleen Edwards in the shiny pop song stakes. She repeats this on Lose-Lose where Tyson Naylor’s throbbing keyboards add a layer of mild psychedelia reminiscent of seventies psych folk. And folk music is at the heart of the album as Abramson delivers some lovely laidback reveries that recall the likes of Shelagh McDonald or even on occasion the weird world of Judy Henske and Jerry Yester’s Farewell Aldebaran. Finally Abramson delivers the stunning Drowning Man which marries the traditional method with the laid back organ fuelled groove of The Band which again recalls the heady days of the seventies when John and Beverly Martyn recorded with Garth Hudson and his buddies. 

1. Factory Reprise 00:48
2.Liftoff Canon 02:32
3.Jack of Diamonds 03:52
4.Marguerite 03:00
5.Fight or Flight 02:48
6.Drowning Man 03:27
7.All Night Reprise 00:42
8.Lose-Lose 03:41
9. Déjà Vu 03:25
10.Skull & Crossbones 05:31
11.Red River Valley 03:45 

Ben benieuwd wat jullie er van vinden.