Akron Family - Meek Warrior Album Review

Akron/ Family

Meek Warrior

Album Review

Imagine, if you will, that the musicians of O Brother Where Art Thou? decided to embrace modern rock and the hedonistic Spanish street rhythms of Springsteen's The Wild, The Innocent. If that sounds like your kind of gig, you'll absolutely love Meek Warrior, an album whose hypnotic music is reminiscent of Beirut's Orkestar, but with American folk as its base, rather than Russian folk. On one hand, the album should be a complete mess - its styles are literally all over the place, but like a Magic Eye painting, something emerges in a minute or two, and that thing is rather wonderful. An organic, breathing thing, this is clearly a band who enjoy playing live - the interplay of acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies as attractive as the Beach Boys of Barbara Ann. Although there are only seven tracks, with one mis-step (No Space In This Realm), you'll leave disoriented but wanting more. A fantastic follow-up to 2005's self-titled disc, this is clearly a band who are happy in their own furrow.

Rating 8/10

Mike Rea