speed of dark

Less than a year after releasing their previous album Mentor Tormentor, Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray of Earlimart are back with another album, Hymn and Her, released July 1. The band has not released two albums this close together since their first Filthy Doorways (1999) and second Kingdom of Champions (2000), and it was three years between their fourth full-length, the brilliant Treble and Tremble (2004), in which they seemed to nail down their style, and last year's Mentor Tormentor. This sudden burst of creativity is said to come from Espinoza and Murray making a vow to release a record every year for the next ten years. Unless they don't want to.

The good news is that they didn't try to make a copy of the last two albums. Earlimart seems in several of the songs to be questioning their motives and goals and reaching for new musical inspirations. The result is a much more diverse group of songs that shows the band breaking out of a song formula that I think had started to be predictable and restrictive.

Hymn and Her most obviously stand for Aaron and Ariana and their band relationship (they are not in a romantic relationship), or an imaginary man and woman trying to negotiate their relationship through rough times and separations. It works on both levels.


Ariana's songwriting and vocal contribution to Mentor Tormentor, "Happy Alone," started Earlimart off on an interesting new path last year. This time around, Ariana's role is further expanded, and she rises to the challenge with three of the best songs on the album: "Before It Gets Better," "Time For Yourself" (possibly my favorite on the whole CD), and the much too short "Tell Me."

"Song For" is the first of the dozen, very much in the Earlimart style with Aaron's soft, echoey vocals, but with a tighter, faster pace. It would be good to see the band incorporate more of that. The lyrics seem to question why goals have not been reached, and this continues in the next song, "Face Down In the Right Town." It's like Earlimart are wondering why they are not further along than they are.

"Song For":

There's a right way
It's a long way to come down
Took the wrong way
Cause you don't want to wait around.

"Face Down In the Right Town":

The people you counted on
Let you down one by one
So be sure what you're asking for
The telephone don't ring no more

But then Ariana steps in with both encouragement and realism on "Before It Gets Better":

Don't leave soon
Don't leave this room
We'll be on top of the moon
But till then it's a bloodbath
And it's gonna get worse.

"For the Birds" goes back to the band's formula, with the heavy mark of Elliott Smith, who was their friend and inspiration, but it incorporates some new twangy guitar sounds.

With "God Loves You the Best," the band experiments with a slower pace and more different musical undercurrents, particularly with the churchy organ accompaniment. "Great Heron Gates" is very slow and somber with a pretty acoustic intro. These lyrics of both represent hitting the bottom but still having hope.

Fell down a deep hole
Selling off our soul
But nobody's buying
So keep it close to your chest
Cause God loves you the best

"Cigarettes and Kerosene" is a big departure, sonically and thematically. It begins with a sharp, thwacking beat and has harsher guitar parts. The subject goes back to younger days when it seemed easier to take risks. This is followed by the excellent "Teeth," which bears a musical kinship to "Song For" in its tighter, more controlled feel while keeping intact the melodic qualities that are one of Earlimart's best features.

Then "Time For Yourself" lifts the album and your heart with a beautiful melody carried on Ariana's warm keys and soft vocals. The girl really shows her skills off here, with several different layers of synths including an especially nice piano. Furthermore, this song shows some of the best lyrics I've heard in any Earlimart song, ever.

We didn't see the problems
Up until the point that we solved them
Maybe if we hadn't looked out on the ocean
We wouldn't have fallen in
Now there's a letter on the shelf
Baby, you need time for yourself
I'll give it to you
All the rest seems to logically follow

The title song and the one following, "Town Where You Belong," put the band, its imaginary couple, and the album on a homeward path, binding together the youthful feel of Earlimart's first albums, the mellow calm of its previous two, and a renewed sense of direction. This is emphasized by the last song, Ariana's beautiful "Tell Me," which is more like a dreamy French Kicks sample than anything I've heard Earlimart do in recent years. I only wish the band had worked this into a more extended version. But all in all, I am very happy with this album and thrilled that Earlimart seem so renewed and invigorated.

Time For Yourself from Hymn and Her (2008)
Caruthers Boy B-side of the Answers and Questions single (2006)

MySpace | Website | Label: Majordomo Records
Buy at Electric Fetus (includes bonus 7"), Amazon.com,
iTunes, and eMusic
At selected locations, with CD purchase you also receive a bonus 7" vinyl with "Song For" and a b-side "originally sung by a Beatle." In southern California, three of those locations are Amoeba Records in Hollywood, Rhino Records in Claremont, and Mad Platter in Riverside.

Show Schedule:
Earlimart has concert dates and record store appearances beginning next week throught the first week of August to support the new album. See Earlimart at the Echoplex for our review of a live show.