CD: WM15
RELEASED: 2004
LABEL: Words On Music

01. Until You Sleep
02. Eternal
03. Halfway To You
04. Leaves
05. Night Sky
06. We Won't Last Another Year
07. Drift
08. London In February
09. So Close

As might befit the act that supported them on their tour last year, Coastal take many a cue from the quite divine Low, but at the blinding sunlight end of their early ambience. The songs, despite being surprisingly short for their type at times, are mesmerically unhurried. Jason Gough offers us his most honest and sparse recording to date. But don’t be confused. Sparse doesn’t mean that he didn’t put the time, thought, creativity and artistry into this record like he should have. On the contrary, Gough has become the master of calculated sparsity, and the art of “less is more” has never sounded so gorgeous. The irony of this is that Halfway To You is the most eclectic and instrumentally diverse album in the Coastal catalog thus far, not to mention the most vocally forthright. The intricate selection of guitar tones, the genius placing of acoustic guitars, and the thoughtful placing of female lullaby harmonies all play into the beauty of this record. Slight string arrangements haunting “Eternal” leave you in chills, while fuller moments like “Halfway To You” almost give you the sense that you’re hearing an unplugged Coastal. When you listen to a lot of “slow-core” bands, you can pick out the ones who are hiding behind a genre because they don’t have the talent to exist without it. Coastal proves that they are on the opposite end of the spectrum. They aren’t using slow-core as their musical medium, they’re on the cutting edge of challenging and refining it. Beautiful guitar tones combined with haunting vocal deliveries turn this sparse album into something much more than “minimal slow-core”. There’s nothing minimal about a recording as beautiful as Halfway To You. This record sounds like a hymnbook of angels.

Influences / Similar Artists:
Low, Mojave 3, Slowdive, Scenic, Lanterna