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There’s nothing I love more than knowing I’m going to love an entire album before even hearing the whole thing. Then again, I’m a music junkie with little to no life. But that’s the feeling I got with both albums released by If These Trees Could Talk. I found their self-titled debut a few months back before their follow-up was released. I would have published a review sooner, but it got pushed back to accommodate several other new releases. Ironically, they had a new release right under my nose. No worries though, I highly doubt I would have listened to the self-titled album more than 50 times before getting the follow-up album otherwise.

I found If These Trees Could Talk (2006) via “listeners also bought” on iTunes (if you think I’ve been beating that process into your heads, wait till you see my editorial next week). I’m inclined to call these guys a heavier and guitar oriented God is an Astronaut. Granted, God is an Astronaut has a guitar player, but If These Trees Could Talk has three… now that’s something I haven’t seen in a while. Although they have the guitar presence to actually pull off Free Bird, endlessly layered guitar solos isn’t what they have in mind. If These Trees Could Talk is post-rock for those who also enjoy bands like Isis, Red Sparowes, Tool, Explosions in the Sky, and maybe even Onesidezero’s debut.

The self-title album opens with their strongest track in my opinion. Malabar Front let’s you know they are post-rock for the guitarist. Somehow three clean guitars all playing something different never feels cluttered. And when the song kicks in heavier and one of them goes nuts with the wah pedal, you’ll never stop and think, “Where are the vocals?” It might take a well-trained musician to isolate what each of the guitars is doing, and although that level of writing certainly raises my opinion of them, the guitars aren’t in your face enough to appear overly complicated. Subtle complication… what a beautiful concept. This theme is prevalent throughout the album if you listen carefully enough. The Friscalating Dusklight even has a 9/8 time signature thrown in. Maybe this is me making a mountain of a molehill, but it’s just a wonderful dichotomy of an unfamiliar rhythm executed in such a way that feels natural. The album as a whole is really quite solid, complete with good dynamics and tonal shifts. The only downside is that it probably shouldn’t be called an album being only 6 tracks and about 32 minutes long.

Need more If These Trees Could Talk? Above the Earth, Below the Sky (2009) was just released this past March and doesn’t disappoint. Once again, the opening track is a slam dunk. In fact, owning the first album and listening to a 30-second clip of From Roots to Needles prompted me to purchase the whole album.  Just like the self-titled album, Above the Earth, Below the Sky has its mix of heavy and mellow tracks, but the second track keeps the momentum from the first building to something barely recognizable as post-rock… maybe some sort of post-rock/post-metal concoction. Of course, the band still takes full advantage of having three guitarists. But what I failed to mention with regards to the first album, and is still true in the follow-up, is that having three guitarists requires a very strong rhythm section. This means tight execution and deft syncopation from both the bassist and the drummer. All in all, both albums are great and I’m looking forward to seeing where they’ll go from here.