County Grind is counting down 2011's best local albums in South Florida. Monitor our progress here.
Caught somewhere in the subduction zone between dream and pop lies this year's full-length offering from Arrange. Solo musician Malcom Lacey has crafted a withdrawn sound. The songs on Plantation do
not fluctuate in overtly dramatic displays of raw emotion, but move
forward in steady, subdued streams of moroseness.
His voice trembles as he wrestles to keep the sentiment from spilling over, creating images not of a man thrashing about in turbulent waters, but rather of a stranded sailor bobbing up and down in a life raft, biding time hopelessly. The songs' reservedness, plus their milky synths and accompanying electronic beats, keeps the listener drawn in. Plantation is the rare kind of record that is slow, intriguing, delicate, thought-provoking, and never once boring.
Listen below.
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