after i bought my first pelican record "city of echoes" last month and listened to it a few times, i knew they would be one of those bands where pre-listening to other records before purchase wasn't necessary anymore. they have the status of impeccability to me now and "what we all come to need" proved the righteousness of that status, an unbelievably well balanced album from start to finish. beautiful soundscapes in mid-tempo with a dark tinge here and there.
they really surprised me with the last song "final breath". it is for an instrumental band undeniably rich in sung words. but none of the band members was responsible for vocal duties. they let allen eply do the job. that eply was a former member of now defunct post-hardcore band shiner. never heard of both of them but the band had some releases on well known sub pop label. now eply is part of the life and times, an indie rock band i don't know either. anyway, his vocals are great, just like the rest of "what we all come to need".
the album is spread across three sides of vinyl and side four is graced with two album songs in their live incarnation and a demo recording. it is the first time that i almost prefer the live versions because the guitar sound is much rawer. lovely, i won't skip this last side, like i do so often with otherwise useless bonus songs. this record marks the band's first release for southern lord, and is the follow-up to "city of echoes". the presentation is very nice here.
it starts with the heavy stoughton tip-on gatefold sleeve. love the solid feel to it. the band name and album title, as well as the tracklist on the back are printed in glossy silver ink. the records are housed in black dust sleeves and the sharp vinyl colour rounds out the packaging. it is a black with wine red merge pattern. a- and c-side are pretty subtle but b- and d-side look awesome. great job by southern lord. bought this in the labels european e-store. actually it was a burning world rec. purchase but they had delivery problems and so southern lord stepped in. re-press from 2015. southern lord. 2009.
