There's baroque orchestral pop—and then there's the baroque orchestral pop of Texas' Mother Falcon. A collective of classical musicians and vocalists with as many as 20 members, Mother Falcon has flights of musical fancy that rely on accordion, strings, keyboards, horns, and a range of vocals that run the gamut from Broadway to pop artists like Rufus Wainwright and Amanda Palmer. The dramatic instrumental "Overture" opens Alhambra, melting gently into the clattering emergence of "Fireflies," a string-driven tune flavored with thunking percussion and piano weaving a canopy under the interlocking vocals of Nick Gregg, Claire Puckett, and Tamir Kalifa. It's a beautiful, glistening song, one that tells you the next 40 minutes are well worth sticking around for. From the darkly beguiling "Drown Me in the River" through the waltzing "Kathryn" and the banjo-inflected "Rabbit Run" on to the cinematic closer "Serpent Tongues," Alhambra offers orchestral pop weighted more heavily toward the genre's adjective than its noun. Fans of smart pop like Noah & The Whale or The Pica Beats will be right at home.
More By Mother Falcon
- 2010
- The Family Crest
- The Oh Hellos
- Takénobu
- The Last Bison