Auburn Lull "Alone I Admire" [Transparent Coke Bottle Green Vinyl] 2LP

Their classic debut now available on vinyl for the first time. Originally released on Burnt Hair Records in March, 1999, this reissue marks the 20th anniversary of Darla's CD reissue in February, 2002.

Auburn Lull was formed in the mid-90s by four rural mid-Michigan teens with their ears tuned to the overseas sounds of Slowdive, Seefeel, The Verve, Eno, and Flying Saucer Attack, to name just a few. The band quickly became associated with other like-minded Michigan bands, particularly Mahogany, with whom they split their recorded debut The Dual Group EP on the now legendary Burnt Hair Records in 1997. Released in 1999 to critical acclaim, Alone I Admire was the band's first full-length and remains the band's touchstone. Though their recorded output comes at a snail's pace, Auburn Lull continue to evolve, surprise, and push their sound into uncharted territory.

It's a cliché, one supposes, to cite a band's power of evocation as its primary calling card; music's supposed to inspire. But of course, blueprint-following riffraff comprise the mainstream. Not so Auburn Lull, whose lovingly stroked guitar chords echo and shimmer, keyboard tapestries unfurl, sweetly humming cellos layer deep textures, and choir-like vocals joyfully swell as if to meet the challenge of an impending celebration. A post-Shoegaze outfit on Burnt Hair (the well-known Michigan spacerock label), Auburn Lull summons the spirits of the mind at a precise moment in modern times when evocative artists are in desperately short supply. For that matter, the group stitches together daydreams within which those spirits can traipse. - Fred Mills