The Mystery, Revealed

I didn't mean to tease the upto12-reading audience for an extended period of time. In fact, I didn't mean to tease at all. The truth is, I mostly forgot that I had hinted at a mystery album until a few of you reminded me. Anyway, friendly shopkeep Chris at Slowtrain ran straight to the shelves and grabbed this album when I told him to pick my final purchase on Thursday:

As far as a review goes, let's just say that I have no plans for taking Chris up on his if-you-don't-like-it-I'll-buy-it-back guarantee. In fact, I wouldn't even think of it. As far as I can tell, French Quarter is a one-man, singer-songwriter operation that dabbles in the sort of hushed emotional songs I tend to enjoy a bit too much. It's solid stuff and begs for repeated listenings before you can form any sort of opinion about the album as a whole.

Let's do this music critic/record label style: If you're a fan of Bon Iver or Andrew Bird or any other soothing, strumming, soft spoken crooners (even Elliott Smith fits the bill), you'll dig this album. Pick it up at Slowtrain or other independent record stores in your area.

Visit the French Quarter MySpace page (as much as I typically detest MySpace pages, it appears to be the only online source for info about the band/man/etc.).