The Avalanches - A Cowboy Overflow of the Heart (feat. David Berman)

I've been keenly awaiting the new Avalanches album for quite a while now and yet for a long time I didn't know there was going to be one. There's some news from last year but now with this YouTube preview uploaded on August 22 this year I thought I'd do some listening. This is a spoken word piece with an underlying musical backing that never quite comes to the forefront. The voice occupies my focus whilst I'm still quite interested in what the music is doing.

The voice we listen to is quite husky, 'close' and centre with an audible 'breathiness'. There are no points where the voice is lost in the backing, its volume is quite consistent. There are only a few words that sink into the background. The length of each group of words is not rigid or set, however not to the point that it sounds merely like conversation.

The musical elements of this piece are centered around the melodies of flutes and the rhythms of acoustic guitar-like sounds. The pulse of the music is quite easy going, I can imagine drums any louder than what just lightly taps in the background would put too much pressure on the other elements. Instead, there are some off-beat tambourines that provide a lighter pulse in parts.

After a few listens I've noticed how much the level of the music fluctuates. I can imagine using a volume automation envelope would be an easy way to do this. It's interesting how I didn't notice this to the same degree on my first listen. Whenever the music is brought up at the end of a vocal phrase it works quite well to hold my attention between lines and anticipate the next sentence... Just as I anticipate the new album!