By: Emily J Ramey

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Low Anthem is in my opinion one of the most overlooked bands in contemporary folk. And what a travesty! The dreamy, rustic lo-fi Americana so characteristic of the Rhode Island trio is both pastoral and experimental. Instrumentation included jaw harp, musical saw, stylophone, oversized drum kits, and three antique pump organs that the band had found and restored. The exquisitely crafted refrains, the occasional achingly sparse arrangements, the sprawling, carefully laid tracks are uniquely charged with a glowing, ethereal quality that makes each song feel as if it is actually being played in a 19th century farmhouse by a few simple country citizens of frontier America and is merely being filtered into the present somehow.

Halcyon and lovely, "Apothecary Love" is as old-fashioned as it is ambrosial, a first listen find. "Boeing 737" is a personal favorite with its cacophonous ambience, a musical presence that can nearly be considered a supplementary instrument, a sonic background I later learned is a result of recording the album in an abandoned warehouse. The whirring, atmospheric "Matter of Time" is a mournful ballad of loneliness and mounting silence; the tenuous instrumental fraught with woodwinds "Wire" with its meticulous viscosity is a breath of vernal breeze on an otherwise autumnal album; and "Burn," is a slender, ethereal tune that showcases the effortless and natural timbre of Ben Knox Miller's vocals while remaining eerie, isolated, and cavernous.

I once read The Low Anthem described as "what Bob Dylan would have sounded like in the 1860s rather than the 1960s." The phrase stuck with me, as does the music it's describing. Give this one some time, and when listening, really study the notes; the subtleties on Smart Flesh are not to be missed.

Emily J Ramey is a burgeoning young music writer, living and working in Nashville, TN. Her background includes journalism classes at New York University and a Music Business degree from Belmont University. Check out her blog at listenerextraordinaire.wordpress.com.