It’s a sunny day album for those rainy days.
It struck me as incredibly sad irony to have finally found this album behind Avril Lavigne. My head-shakes while pushing back copies of The Best Damn Thing should have illustrated it clearly. As of now, I can’t stop listening to The Opposite Side of the Sea by Oren Lavie.
Quirky, simple, and chirpy, the album starts with Her Morning Elegance. Made famous by a whimsical stop-motion viral video on YouTube, the introductory track is an odd, sunny piece in comparison to the rest of the album. The twitter A Quarter Past Wonderful bookends the album in the same way – even playfully ending the song with a hilarious rough-voiced grumbling. The album as a whole consists more often of deep, yet light songs themed around the rain, the ocean, troubled men, and the day-to-day beauties of a girl. It’s startling how uncomplicated yet how gripping this album is.
Lavie and his quartet achieve a staggering composition of soft vocals and orchestral cadences that evoke rainy mornings, distant sea storms, or even fruit.
Locked In A Room, Trouble Don’t Rhyme, A Short Goodbye, and The Man Who Isn’t There make up the more profound parts of the album. Melancholy, but okay with it, the tracks are whispery with inspiriting instruments and rhythms.
The album’s title track, The Opposite Side of the Sea, is the most thrilling piece – weaving intense strings with Lavie’s more passionate vocals.
The CD as a whole is soft yet intense. Everything is listenable and there are no wasted tracks. Though it becomes clear the first half of the lineup hosts some of the better material. At Blue Smile, it starts brushing the description “repetitious”, but A Quarter Past Wonderful immediately resets the situation and closes the album at an almost perfect A+.
Track List:
Preferring:
