ON AN ON: Give In

    One of my favorite albums of 2011 was by a band called Scattered Trees, Sympathy. Sometime thereafter, Scattered Trees held a Pledge Music, here, to raise funds for their sophomore release. Things don't always go as planned or foreseen, however, as one or two of the members left the band and Scattered Trees changed its name to ON AN ON (can't say I'm a fan of the new name...for one thing it conflicts with other similar names when you search Google or Grooveshark). Still, they did manage to release their latest album, January 29, 2013 on Roll Call Records, AND sent me a copy of their old album along with it, which I actually already own (I'm still figuring out who I want to donate my extra copy to btw!). Apparently, the "new" group only had about three weeks to put something together since they had a studio booked and they were going to be working with Dave Newfeld from Broken Social Scene. Anyway, I've listened to the album cover to cover more than a few times and I have a couple thoughts.
    First, I miss the melancholy, pared down, approach of Scattered Trees; without the reverb chamber or mix of sounds that although are nicely pieced together take away from the melody. Granted, it all works together well, but it just wasn't quite what I was hoping for. Regardless, its good to see they didn't just break up and go their separate ways and I'm always grateful for new music! Second, most every song is sort of busy, full of little sounds here and there that don't necessarily detract from the music, but I sometimes wonder how much they just added things in without much thought specifically why they wanted it. It will make duplicating their studio effort on stage somewhat of a daunting task I feel. Now, I may also be speculating, because maybe they just played it down while recording, but I don't quite get that feeling--especially two members short. I wonder if they will continue to evolve their songs or just hire more people to play alongside on tours. Maybe band auditions are imminent?
    Some of the highlights of the album are "Ghosts", which is most like their original album, Sympathy, and is what they previewed for listeners on their Pledge Music site. I figure, after the fact, that it was the right choice because it made us all hungry for more of Sympathy, without us knowing what not to expect. I also enjoy the really bright soundings synths on "All the Horses" and probably my second favorite song is "Every Song", followed by "American Dream" and "Hunter". Ironically, my favorites go from the first track in order, so maybe if I just keep listening they will all continue to grow on me. One thing I disliked was the redo of "Panic", gotta admit. There are a couple remixes of both "Ghosts" and "The Hunter" that came with the deluxe version of the album too.
    Well, you're in luck if you want to listen first, head to ON AN ON's Bandcamp site, here. There's some cool album artwork to their two singles, "Ghosts" and "The Hunter" you can see there too. Also, check out "Every Song" over under the 'Monthly Sample Tracks' for a taste, enjoy!