Stuff From the Shelf: ‘The Family Tree: The Roots’ by Radical Face
Image Courtesy of Bear Machine
The Family Tree: The Roots
Radical Face
Bear Machine
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 9, 2012 4:11 p.m.
The concept album is an often overlooked and always under-appreciated form of music. It, as per its name, deals with one theme over the course of an album. Usually that theme takes the form of a story or narrative, often with a set of made-up characters. One example is “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” by My Chemical Romance.
Another concept album, released in October of 2011 by Radical Face (one of musician Ben Cooper’s many projects) is “The Family Tree: The Roots.” And this is not just one concept album, it is apparently the first in a trilogy of them about a fictional family from the 1800s.
Simply put, it’s brilliant.
Cooper uses piano, acoustic guitar, banjo and occasional drums and strings to weave a rich and immersing folk tapestry, completed by outstanding songwriting.
The album begins with “Names,” a short intro song that manages to set the tone for the rest of the album in less than two minutes. It sounds as though it comes out of an old radio, and it is clearly the introduction to the subject of this album, a wanderer on the road alone: “But no matter how long I stay / It’ll never know my name / Oh, I am a long way from home.”
Over the course of the next 45 minutes, Cooper creates warm and earthy soundscapes as he develops the storyline of “The Family Tree: The Roots.” It should be noted that this is not necessarily a happy story. The character’s father is an alcoholic, as revealed in “Family Portrait,” and he loses his brother to a brutal winter in “Severus and Stone.”
But listeners should not be dissuaded by the sadness of the album, because it yields almost painfully beautiful results.
“Ghost Towns” is another song about life as a wanderer and manages to be both uplifting and lonely at the same time because the protagonist has accepted that a life on the move is his only option: “I see the world from rusted trains / And always know I won’t be back / Because all my life is wrapped up in today.”
“Always Gold,” on the other hand, tells the story of an enduring friendship. Even though the subjects of the song are completely fictional, listeners can’t help but rejoice when one friend returns after a long time away, and so does the protagonist: “I was there when three months later / You were standing in the door all beat and tired.”
The album concludes with “Mountains,” the most majestic song in the set and a fitting conclusion to the first part of the trilogy. Cooper has created something truly special here – a transportive and cohesive set of songs that begs to be made into a movie. Cinematic but sparse, warm but sad, “The Family Tree: The Roots” by Radical Face deserves to be part of any music fan’s library.
“Stuff from the Shelf” is a Spotlight blog series in which Daily Bruin A&E reviews the albums and games that have been sent to us for review over the years.
