Savoir Adore - In The Wooded Forest (Cantora)

It’s taken nearly a year for the debut full-length from Brooklyn’s Savoir Adore to get a UK release, though that’s still not bad for a band that started mostly as a laugh. Paul Hammer and Deirdre Muro, the duo behind the fantastical imagery and sounds, have the sort of unique chemistry that can only be born from inspiration without expectation. There is a magical element to In The Wooded Forest, in the way there is something magical about the bright colors they evoke; the sparkly synth add-ons they employ are straight out of a 90s children’s show. And their chemistry is evident in their rich vocal harmonies, particularly on the anthemic ‘Early Bird.’

As a young band, what Savoir Adore lack is clear direction. The very pretty acoustic ‘Honestly,’ for example, doesn’t make too much sense in the wider context of the album. Many of their songs are very dependent on the energy of the arrangement, which is not always met in favor of the slow/fast/slow dynamic so favourable to indie rock (see also the loud/quiet/loud counterpart). No amount of feeling conveyed by Muro can compensate for the deathly pace of the slower songs, and often the album’s weakest moments can be counted in the empty space between drum beats.

The chorus of ‘Transylvanian Candy Patrol’ (make of that title what you will), with its shouted call-and-response, doesn’t make the verse move any faster, and the album as well as individual songs would have benefitted from a bit of pruning. But considering their previous effort was a concept EP, we can make allowances if they occasionally lose the plot.