Anthony Green – "Avalon"

Album: Avalon
Artist: Anthony Green
Label: Photo Finish Records
Release date: 5th August 2008

Anthony Green‘s vocal style is unique. That’s a cold, hard fact. He’s got a higher vocal range than almost any other man on the alt. scene today (with the possible exceptions of Claudio Sanchez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala).

And, as well as the undeniably impressive voice, his musical resumé is pretty impressive: he was behind the mic for Saosin‘s debut EP (Translating the Name, Death Do Us Part, 2003). After his departure from Saosin, Green went on to found Circa Survive, and take up the vocal gauntlet for experimental collective The Sound of Animals Fighting. And as if all that wasn’t quite enough to earn him the mantle of “hardest working man in rock music”, he somehow found the time to head into the studio to record his debut solo album, Avalon.

Avalon is a strange beast, the kind of semi-electronic indie-rock (see: The Prize Fighter Inferno) that sounds amazing but always runs the risk of seeming esoteric and overproduced. Fortunately for Green, Avalon shies away from pretension by weaving between synth-heavy lovesongs and intimate acoustic interludes. The alt-country acoustic vibe of “Slowing Down (Long Time Coming) is one of the album’s highlights. The songwriting is unashamedly surreal, with moments of pure beauty (“Dear Child I’ve Been Dying To Reach You”) and creeping insanity (“Babygirl”). Green’s vocals are celestial, and at times it’s almost impossible not to feel yourself being carried away (where do you go/when it gets dark?)

But, unfortunately, it’s not perfect. There’s not quite enough musical innovation here to really distinguish it from a Circa Survive record, and there are moments (“Springtime Out the Van Window”) where the IDM-lite drum-loops and recycled electronic sounds start to wear thin. Overall, Avalon impresses with its scale, but is let down by a small number of below-par tracks. However, as soon as it picks itself up from these modest lows, Avalon reaches to some incredible heights.

Our Arbitrary Numerical Verdict: