Harvest Of Dreams (studio album) by Bobb Trimble

From Mercury 04/23/2018 21:07

Taken from my music diary whilst delving into 1982:

"Okay, this is ranked number 102 of 1982 on RYM. Mostly I was really curious about the state of singer/songwriters in 1982, considering as that along with Blues is my main genre wheelhouse. And the album I wanted to hear was So far by Bob Theil, but its not available on the prefered format I am using at this time (will search it out and listen). But now I am listening to this, and: holy shit... this is, like, really good.

The opening track is so hard to pin down. Its not quite like anything I can recall hearing. The vocals are absolutely stunning and soaring and happy, and all these guitars with varying amounts of effects are sort of wafting through the recording, playing off each other, running into each other, intermingling to make this jangly sweet happy vibe which is perfect for the singer to exist in. I can't imagine a better opening statement for the album. The harmonica on this opening track, called "Premonitions - The Fantasy" btw, is a nice added flavor, the drums are relaxed and in the background keeping the beat. The song is sort of a jangly, sunshiney psychedelic folk song which is exactly what the doctor ordered. Lets see how the rest of the album holds up.

... (45 minutes pass, Ryan smokes, has coffee, empties his dishwasher and reloads it, stresses about finances, has more coffee, pees, then returns to give his proclamations on this out-of-nowhere album)...

okay, i am not sure this is real life. how could it be? This album... what did i hear? This album is seemingly an artifact of some parallel dimension. On this album everything is familiar, but slightly askew. The melodic nature of the record is dreamy, ethereal, emotional, floating-clouds-airy-etc. The guitars troughout (when they are clearly heard in the mix that is) are jangly and warm and welcoming. They mingle with the beautiful young Kate Bush-esque vocals of Mr. Trimble. The harmonica solos on the 2 Premonition tracks are familiar and grounded, but they seem to come and go without a trace, never fully pinned down.

The random vocal snippets, the phone operator message which comes and goes, the young boy's contribution on track 5, the squeaky sound effects found here and there, the whole atmosphere of the album just treads the line between genre and era so masterfully that at no point did I really think to myself "yeah i get it! This is an early 80s take on late 60s psychedelic folk" or "oh yeah makes sense this is a freak folk album" or "yeah this is pretty squarely a folk pop release" etc. Cuz everytime I started to get some inkling of the form or aim of the record, it would throw a curveball which would make me sit up in my chair and say "hey wait, what's this now?" - like on track7 "Selling Me Short While Stringing Me Along" the song starts with a warbly effect that leads into a lovelorn melody, then 30 seconds later this sharp distorted guitar buzz encroaches and I am back at square one - utterly in love and invested but at the same time in awe and confused. then still later a fukcing screaming pissed off man is yelling in the background. what. the. fudge.

the next track starts like a bad trip, disorienting, noisy, then stops on a dime and morphs into something else, then there's a bit of studio banter, then the drums come in and the mix is all wonked out and harshly in the red and yet again i am at the aforementioned square one. This album is a masterpiece. I am convinced this is about as great as it gets.

the RateYourMusic descriptors and genre tags are

Psychedelic Folk, Singer/Songwriter, Psychedelic Pop
androgynous vocals, autumnal, psychedelic, melancholic, sparse... and these fit. But yeah still doesn't express the full breadth of the ethereal shape-shifting power of the album.

I am in love with this. And I had not previously even heard of this album. I had seen on this site the front cover of Bobb's debut album "Iron Curtain Innocence" and I never listened to it. I think I will now. if its even 60% as impressive as this, his sophomore album, I'll like it a lot.

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anyway, this shoots straight to number 2 on my 1982 faves. I can't quite put it ahead of the epochal Thriller, but, still, this is so indescribable that if you listen to it, even if you don't love it, you'll be engaged and entertained at the very least methinks.

first listen rating: 9.5/10

best tracks: 1. "Premonitions - The Fantasy", 2. "If Words Were All I Had", 4. "Armour of the Shroud", 5. "Premonitions Boy - The Reality", 7. "Selling Me Out While String Me Along", the closing track 10. "Another Lonely Angel"." <---- haha! my incorrect use of punctuation lead to a little cute mouthless face, isn't that precious.

From NickVolos 04/12/2014 12:58

Great album. Hard to decide which one, this or "Iron Curtain Innocence" is better. Nevertheless it should be higher than 36,324th. "World I Left Behind" is an amazing track...