The Rosebuds - Albums Collection 2003-2014 (7CD)

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The Rosebuds - Albums Collection 2003-2014 (7CD)

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Indie rock trio the Rosebuds formed in May 2001, the same month that Ivan Howard (vocals/guitars) and Kelly Crisp (keyboards) were married. The two had met while in college in Wilmington, North Carolina, and upon forming the Rosebuds moved to Raleigh in the fall of 2001 and enlisted drummer Billy Alphin (of Ashley Stove). After a split 7", nearby Merge Records discovered their demo in early 2003 and released Make Out, their debut full-length, in October of that year. Following that recording, Alphin left the group and was replaced by Jonathan Bass, who himself was replaced by Lee Waters for the recording of the band's second album, 2005's Birds Make Good Neighbors. By the release of their third album for Merge, 2007's Night of the Furies, the Rosebuds were down to the duo of Howard and Crisp. On the record they were joined by numerous friends, including Matt McCaughan on drums and the Shout Out Louds on backing vocals. The duo returned to the studio in 2008 and released Life Like in October. In the time between Life Like and the duo's 2011 album, Loud Planes Fly Low, two important things happened: Howard joined the band Gayngs, whose soft rock-meets-soul sound influenced the Rosebuds; and more importantly, the duo's marriage ended. They dedicated themselves to keeping the band going, and with the production help of Chris Stamey and BJ Burton, made an album with all the emotional power you'd expect considering the circumstances behind its creation. Howard relocated to Portland, Oregon and Crisp settled in New York City, but the two maintained their working relationship and continued to write songs together. In 2014, the Rosebuds released Sand + Silence, which was recorded in Wisconsin with BJ Burton and Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver and Howard's bandmate in Gayngs) serving as producers. The album, a sunnier affair than Loud Planes Fly Low, was also the Rosebuds' first release for Western Vinyl Records after severing ties with Merge.

Kenyon Hopkin, Allmusic.com

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The Rosebuds - Albums Collection 2003-2014 (7CD)

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The Rosebuds - Albums Collection 2003-2014 (7CD)

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The Rosebuds are a hook-laden, energetic indie group from North Carolina plucked right out of Merge's backyard. Their debut long-player, The Rosebuds Make Out, is a strong and memorable record that sounds fresh on repeated listens. The disc is split between up-tempo rockers and weepy ballads. The rockers are what reach out and grab you on initial listens. Tracks like the goofy "My Downtown Friends," "What Can I Do?," and the buoyant "Kicks in the Schoolyard" are pop songs with sharp-as-roses hooks. Ivan Howard has a perfect rock voice, elastic and sharp, able to carry the tunes easily and with verve. For the most part the instrumentation on the record is spare, with guitars leading the way, but the occasional use of big, clunky, unironic synths make ballads like "Wishes for Kisses" and "Back to Boston" sound like a cross between the Cure and the Anniversary. Which is not a sound too many bands have these days. You can also hear bits of the Pixies, Yo La Tengo, and an old-school Merge band, Spent, in there too; all bands that combine energy with melody and end up right square in classic indie rockville. The only track that lets the side down a bit is the last track on the record, the overly long and repetitive "Make Out Song." Despite that minor hiccup, Merge has really picked a winner here; The Rosebuds Make Out is a sweet smelling bunch of songs by a very promising new band.

Tim Sendra, Allmusic.com

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The Rosebuds - Albums Collection 2003-2014 (7CD)

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The Rosebuds' Unwind EP is like a short version of their solidly exciting debut album from 2004, The Rosebuds Make Out. It mixes raucous rockers with dreamy midtempo ballads, both played with a minimum of fuss and a large dose of energy. The only difference on Unwind is that some of the songs have a heightened sense of drama, like the pocket epic "El Camino," which rides some very poignant chord changes to a powerful synth and distorted guitar climax, and "Unwind," which is a moody acoustic-based ballad that has a much deeper sense of emotion and feeling than anything on the first record. The flat-out rockers like "You Better Get Ready"(which has a humorous Sonny & Cher quote) and "I'd Feel Better" are really good, too, bursting with joyous energy, dancefloor-filling recklessness, and convincing vocals. Ivan Howard has the rare voice that sounds just as convincing on the ballads and the rockers; he is the duo's greatest asset. Even if the songs had been weak, which they most certainly are not, The Rosebuds would be worth hearing. The Unwind EP shows a band delivering more of what made it so promising in the first place, and adding some welcome sonic and emotional development, too.

Tim Sendra, Allmusic.com

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The Rosebuds - Albums Collection 2003-2014 (7CD)

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The Rosebuds' first album, 2003's The Rosebuds Make Out, was a fun album, indie rock at its most lighthearted and breezy. In the time since then, the duo of vocalist/guitarist Ivan Howard and keyboardist/vocalist Kelly Crisp have discovered subtlety and sadness, it seems. The songs are coated with a layer of almost gothic gloom and smeared with glossy acoustic guitars and clichéd arrangements, Howard's vocals (one of the bands' strong points) sound detached and morose for the most part, and the band seem to have sacrificed their freshness and spark for a misguided attempt at emotional heft. On Birds Make Good Neighbors, the unbridled punch of the first album is pretty much gone, as instead the band have opted for a layered and adult sound with loads of the aforementioned acoustic guitars, lounge-y electric pianos, and cottony reverb to match the arty and somewhat arch lyrics. Songs about birds, ancient promises, boxcars, and falling leaves may sound good in the hands of someone like Nick Cave, maybe, but in the Rosebuds' grip seem ill-fitting. The band sounded much more at ease on their first album and the more subdued yet still energetic and light EP (2004's The Rosebuds Unwind) that followed, much more energetic and focused. That's not to say that there aren't some fine songs here like the rollicking "Hold Hands and Fight," "The Lover's Rights," which bops along like an indie rock take on Motown, and the pounding and peppy "Shake Our Tree" to name a few. Unfortunately, the forced and false-sounding songs outnumber these bright spots by a wide margin. In a sad trade-off, the band's desire to make a more emotionally powerful and thoughtful record has sapped their strengths and partially ruined what was good about them (their high energy sound, their gleeful innocence, and their knack for sharp and catchy hooks) to begin with.

Tim Sendra, Allmusic.com

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The Rosebuds - Albums Collection 2003-2014 (7CD)

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The Rosebuds' third album isn't a return to the cheerful pop of their debut, Rosebuds Make Out. Those days are seemingly gone forever for the duo. Thankfully, it isn't another offering as flat and almost willfully hook-free as the follow-up, Birds Make Good Neighbors. Instead, Night of the Furies is a well-structured, dramatic, and entertaining album that replaces the atmospheric gloom of the last record with a slick and shiny synth pop coating that suits the poetic and often heartbreaking lyrics perfectly. Without all the gloomy reverb and overcooked arranging, the words and emotions are given some room to breath. The same holds true for the excellent vocals delivered throughout by Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp. The production and performances are a perfect illustration of how less can be more, and it makes for a huge leap forward for The Rosebuds. The restraint and subtly create a very nocturnal mood that nothing can break, not even the tracks that ride disco-pop ("Get Up Get Out," "Night of the Furies") or house-y ("Hold on to This Coat") rhythm tracks or bust out in handclaps and raucous chorus vocals ("Silja Line," with voices courtesy of the Shout Out Louds). The lyrics also cast a spell with references to Viking blood, tombstones, spooky attics, lonely cottages, and of course, the Furies. Even when you can't quite break the ornate code and figure out just what they're talking about, the feeling of sepia-toned melancholy and gentle creepiness is hard to shake. In the age of the song, Night of the Furies is a true album that has to be heard from beginning to end in order to enjoy it fully. Anyone who likes their indie pop with a full order of mystery and drama, hold the pretension, will treasure this dark and enchanting album.

Tim Sendra, Allmusic.com

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The Rosebuds - Albums Collection 2003-2014 (7CD)

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On their fourth full-length album, Life Like, the Rosebuds take a step back from the nearly overwhelming gothic darkness of Night of the Furies and return to a sound and feel reminiscent of their first album and EP. Not that the lyrics suddenly became all sweetness and light, they are still delving into gloomy matters and tackling murky emotions with abstract and poetic language. The fact that the musical backing is less synthetic and heavy than that of Furies makes Life Like an easier listen though, some of the tracks even have hit potential. "Cape Fear"'s hooky melody and Kelly Crisp's snappy vocals make a tale of man-eating catfish and third-degree burns palatable, "Bow to the Middle"'s bouncy beats and singalong chorus are tailor-made for indie rock dance clubs, and "Another Way In"'s somber Cure-ish atmosphere would fit well on late-night rotation. The glimmers of sunlight that break through the clouds intermittently on Life Like don't make the record any less of an emotionally charged affair, as Ivan Howard still sounds like every word he sings means the world to him, the arrangements still have plenty of drama, and the album has impact, both lyrically and musically. The subtlety with which they handle a song like the lyrically powerful "Nice Fox" is commendable, another band might have piled on the dramatics and instruments and made a pretentious mess of things but the Rosebuds don't. They show restraint and the album succeeds because of it. Indeed, their light touch and unfailing ability to deliver un-telegraphed emotional punches on Life Like make the album a strong addition to the Rosebuds already impressive catalog.

Tim Sendra, Allmusic.com

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On their fifth album, the duo of Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp find a kind of balance between sonic texture and thoughtful contemplation that makes for a rare achievement, especially given the unavoidable context of their broken marriage before its recording. The swathes of reverb throughout, not to mention the gently glazed keyboards and soft blends of harmony singing and individual crooning, is something that seems both backward-glancing and of its intentionally imperfect time. But Loud Planes Fly Low captures fragmented moments instead of formless dreams and random wishes: the melancholia that lingers throughout feels like one of experience rather than self-conscious ennui. "Go Ahead" starts the album beautifully on this front, the slow build into a cymbal-heavy conclusion achieving both drama and resolution on a musical front, all while Howard's voice singles out details from a fractured past with a calm, cutting intensity. With that as a strong starting point, the album flows through its ten songs touching on familiar enough touchstones; blissed-out dream pop gentility, early Slumberland-style indie pop, a kind of swooning catchiness that many bands from Scandinavia seem to easily make their own. The best summary of this all might be "A Story," a lengthy, driving number that hints tangentially at the Cure's majestic mood piece "A Forest" not only in title. There are other twists as well – "Without a Focus," with its rough acoustic introduction and Howard's quavering croon, suggests both T. Rex and David Garza in its gentle passion, while the sentiments on the closing "Worthwhile" look back on a past and hope for a future memory in considered, often surprisingly concrete fashion. The embrace of understated dance-rock on "Come Visit Me," Crisp's first lead vocal on the album, is one of many points that keep things from simply being contemplative. There's a sense of energy kicking up and out, a kind of frustration bursting out (suggested in part by that song's chorus containing lines like "I need something happy now").

Ned Raggett, Allmusic.com

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The Rosebuds - Albums Collection 2003-2014 (7CD)

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The notion that time heals all wounds is ultimately false, but the passage of a few years does make the pain less vivid, which is borne out on the Rosebuds' sixth album, Sand+Silence. Released in 2011, Loud Planes Fly Low was recorded in the wake of the divorce of the group's founders, Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp, and it wasn't hard to hear the tension and heartbreak lurking in the songs. Three years later, the Rosebuds sound a bit dour, as they so often do, but the edge of disappointment has faded, and a faint hope has returned on Sand+Silence's 11 songs. Howard's friend and occasional collaborator Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) co-produced the album (with BJ Burton) as well as handling guitars, keyboards, and percussion, and while he might seem like a curious choice to bring a breezy pop sound to numbers like "Mine Mine Mine" or "Death of an Old Bike," the results sound playful and freewheeling, but rich and full of smart details that reveal themselves on repeated plays, while "In My Teeth," "Tiny Bones," and the title cut reflect the more downbeat chamber pop approach that's been the Rosebuds' stock in trade since their sophomore effort, 2005's Birds Make Good Neighbors. Though Howard and Crisp are in good (well, clearly better) spirits on Sand+Silence, it's worth noting that she seems to be a somewhat muted presence on these sessions; she helped write all the songs, but her contributions in the studio are limited to piano and harmony vocals, while Howard handles all the lead vocals (sounding strong and emotionally eloquent) as well as various guitars and keyboards, and four other musicians are on hand to fill out the subtle but sometimes dense arrangements. However the principals have made their compromises, Sand+Silence shows Howard and Crisp are committed to keeping this band alive, and the album confirms they're still an uncommonly smart and talented indie pop band with a great deal to offer.

Review by Mark Deming, Allmusic.com