Click here for QRO’s interview with The Rosebuds’ Kelly Crisp
Click here for photos of The Rosebuds at SXSW 2009 in Austin, TX in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
Click here for QRO’s review of The Rosebuds at Bowery Ballroom in New York, NY on January 16th, 2009
Click here for photos of The Rosebuds at CMJ 2008 in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
Click here for QRO’s review of The Rosebuds at Music Hall in Williamsburg on January 18th, 2008
Though the line-up of the duo has remained the same, as has their hometown label made big, much else changes album-to-album for Merge Records’ Rosebuds. Kelly Crisp and Ivan Howard treat each album like a separate "art project" (QRO interview), resulting in differing releases, from the dance of 2007’s Night of the Furies (QRO review) to the outdoor wistful nature on the following year’s Life Like (QRO review). With Loud Planes Fly Low, perhaps mix those two while tapping into something new, a late night in the city, looking back on loss after the party’s over.
Almost entirely sung by Howard, tracks on Loud Planes such as the smooth "Second Bird of Paradise", duet loss "Come Visit Me", or the intimate closer "Worthwhile" all evoke a feeling akin to the end of Bright Lights, Big City – minus the hopefulness and the coke – of the midnight lights on the city streets, sad but accepting loss, cruising the streets when the city has gone to bed, wistful at what has departed. Even most of the stylistic changes stick to that framework – "Woods" is a bigger cry into the night, while the following "A Story" is a washing near-instrumental background. Only perhaps the more swaying opener "Go Ahead" and the slow "Cover Ears", which has the feel of loss over the fields, venture into that more outdoors nature more prevalent on Life Like.
The early Rosebuds material was more up-dance, if tinged with darkness and anger, whereas their more recent work has been much more somber, but also airier – and there’s still significant change, record-to-record. Loud Planes Fly Low could be seen as the waning hours of their trip to the city, so who knows where Crisp & Howard go from here (especially as this is the first album since the husband-and-wife duo’s divorce – legally, but not musically) – but it’s been a very interesting and compelling journey to behold.
MP3 Stream: "Second Bird of Paradise"
