ALBUM REVIEW: The Felice Brothers Populate ‘Valley of Abandoned Songs’ With Characters and Craft
Maeri Ferguson
Posted On June 27, 2024
What do a doomed heiress chanteuse, a devoted New York City bellhop, a prostitute in pastel tights, a dead man’s guitar, and a wistful railroad traveler have in common? Each appear vividly in songs on the latest album from The Felice Brothers, Valley of Abandoned Songs, the band’s first on Conor Oberst’s new label, Million Stars.
The Felice Brothers (photo by Caitlin Greene)
Like the dreamy painting that adorns its cover, Valley of Abandoned Songs toes the realm between the fantastical and the physical, always bringing a world-weary grounding to The Felice Brothers’ lovingly crafted worlds where nothing is ever as it seems. Society’s cast-offs and humanistic animals come to life in scenic locales across time and space, set to naturalistic arrangements heightened by the 1870s church in which the band records.
Led by Ian Felice’s unselfconscious wail, the tracks on Valley of Abandoned Songs use this dreamlike imagery to explore themes of death, regret, fear, devotion, and disillusionment. With this in mind, it makes sense that many were leftovers from sessions of the band’s previous two records, which took a similar approach to storytelling. Still, “leftovers” should not imply they didn’t make the grade. The Hollywood noir album opener “Crime Scene Queen” is an instant Felice Brothers classic that would have been right at home on 2023’s Asylum on the Hill, with its haunting harmonies and creeping sense of foreboding. “Raccoon, Rooster and Crow” turns the standard nursery rhyme on its head, telling a tale both dark and whimsical of a trouble-making trio (the rooster smokes cigarettes and wears a checkered shirt) on a fishing expedition. The damp, smoky, blue-tinged “New York by Moonlight” includes a cast of cogs that make the gritty, beautiful city tick.
Hope snakes through Valley of Abandoned Songs, too, especially on tunes like the buoyant “Younger as the Days Go By,” the barebones “Tomorrow is Just a Dream Away,” and the sweet album closer “To Be a Papa.” It is in these tracks that the band seems to find slivers of calm in the roiling sea. Every emotion serves its purpose, and each character plays their part to make the world keep spinning round.
The Felice Brothers’ Valley of Abandoned Songs is out June 28 on Million Stars Records. Ian Felice painted the image featured on the cover of No Depression’s Summer 2024 journal. View the cover and table of contents here.
