The Rest: Everyone All At Once

Every now and then an album comes out that is truly unique; completely fresh and totally unlike anything you've ever heard before.  Everyone All At Once by Canadian band The Rest is certainly not one of those records.  It's full of sounds and textures that have already been made by a plethora of other bands (I shan't be so crass as to list them here: the joy of being an mp3 blog is that you can hear the music for yourselves).  What this record is, however, is very, very good indeed.

While Everyone All At Once does sound like any number of different albums, the key point is that they're all albums that I've been enjoying a lot lately.  The Rest may be somewhat derivative, but they make their music with style, finesse and an obvious passion.  The performances captured on this record are excellent and the production is of a very high standard while still being appropriate for the genre (North American Indie, if I had to pigeonhole it...).

It also appears that this record came about as a result of a Gabriel García Márquez style creative exile which seems to be so in-vogue at the moment (courtesy of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon).  Coupled with the quality of the songs themselves this confirms my suspicion that, despite similarities to other records, this is a very "pure" album.

The Rest - Sheep in Wolve's [sic] Clothing [audio //www.bearfacedrecords.com/EbMBlog_mp3s/TheRest/TheRest_SheepInWolvesClothing.mp3]

The Rest - Walk on Water (Auspicious Beginnings) [audio //www.bearfacedrecords.com/EbMBlog_mp3s/TheRest/TheRest_WalkOnWater.mp3]