Large – Marine Life (German Turnip) (13th Floor Album Review)
Israeli/Canadian songwriter Jamie Hilsden (Man Alive) is releasing his solo album Marine Life under the difficult to find on Google band name, Large (seriously, Google it and see the abundance of blue whales that come up!). The project is a catchy, folky journey which is showered in optimism and top-notch guitar work.
You’ll notice straight away in the opener Standard & Practices just how much work has gone into weaving a complex backdrop. Throughout the LP, the guitars are loaded on top of each other (or in the opener’s case, call and respond to each other), there’s stimulating synth sounds that sit ever so gently in the backdrop, Rickenbacker 12-string guitar is tastefully added, and we get light orchestral moments. There were lots of instances where the (amateur) musician in me smiled at each layer of the instrumentation. Each song intentional evokes intentional variation, so you should get some satisfaction out of that.
Over the top of that, Hilsden’s voice is sweet and bubbly. This results in setting an incredibly sanguine tone for the album. If you were hoping for punk-rock angst found in his previous outings with Man Alive, you won’t find it here. Strap yourself in for a wild ride of pleasant optimism and catchy melodies. And this guy can write a hook! Just listen to Falling in the Woods and try not to be singing along by the end.
While there were some rather memorable vocal melodies, I wasn’t quite as taken by the lyrics. One Day Son pretty much tries to paraphrase an important conversation from Disney’s The Lion King (without telling us about that shadowy place!). And then, in the same song, the guy just randomly lists flavours! Hilsden resumes his listing in the aptly titled List For Life (which, sadly, even contains the lyric ‘Circle of Life’).
But it’s not just listing things and dialogue from the smash 1994-epic-animal-retelling-of-Shakespeare’s-Hamlet that has allegedly inspired Marine Life. It’s marketed as having recurring oceanic imagery for songs about connection, distance, and the subtle rhythms of daily life. Well, Disney also did an ocean movie about that! You could have quoted Finding Nemo instead, pal!
Lyrics aside, the guitar work is what should be put in the spotlight. There’s quite a nifty instrumental titled Manta Ray, that dotes on the jagged line between jangly indie and surf. There is a motif, of types, that is very prevalent in many guitar lines across the album. I’m not classically trained enough to tell you WHAT that is (and my editor tells me off when I try to turn guitar sounds into onomatopoeiae), so I’ll throw that one to you as the listeners. However, I did really enjoy the guitarwork on this album.
Whilst being rather darn catchy in certain points, Marine Life is brought down in many ways by a vibe which I just found too positive. There doesn’t appear to be a melancholic, angsty or depressing moment even alluded to in this album. It’s just a bit too optimistic. Perhaps it’s just me. Perhaps I’m the only person who likes a bit of bitterness in their coffee. Even when the guitars hit distortion and the drums joined in on Caterpillar, I couldn’t click with it.
You’ll find a vibrant range of cheerfulness littered amongst complex layers of instrumentation in the debut from Large. Plenty of vocal hooks and sophisticated guitar lines really show excellent potential. It’s very accessible music, but I’m not sure I found exactly what I was looking for in my deep dive into Marine Life.
Daniel Edmonds
Marine Life is due for release Saturday, Jan. 31.
