Album Review: Fawn and Rabbit- The Long Trail That Leads To Nowhere

Rating: A

It is tough to summarize all of the great things that can happen in your bedroom: you can obviously get some much needed rest, you can read a great book or watch something compelling on television, you can mess around on your computer for hours on end, you can play that great video game, and if you are lucky you can even be "in the throngs of activity" with that special someone.  The bedroom is supposed to be a private and intimate castle, where nothing is ever produced besides the sound of laughter, argument, clicking, or maybe a moan.  In other words, if creativity exists in the bedroom it exist in the most primitive "caveman and cavewoman" sense of human beings finding a new way to jump on each other.  Besides that, a bedroom is often times not only the place where we rest our heads but it is a place where we put our creative mind to rest.  When have you ever seen someone think of something great and say "Yeah I just thought of that in my bedroom?"

The Long Trail That Leads To Nowhere is an EP that defies our conventional bedroom wisdom.  The album is one of the best releases of the year despite being produced entirely in lead singer Alec Morgan's bedroom.  Even though Morgan and bandmate Vince Paska recorded The Long Trail That Leads Nowhere in Morgan's bedroom and with hardly any resources (Morgan only had a bass drum, a snare drum that he had to borrow from two friends, one 50 dollar acoustic guitar, and no recording experience) he ended up making an EP that sounds like a genuine combination of the Beatles later works, Bob Dylan's darkest songs, and even a little bit of Led Zeppelin.  In his bedroom, Morgan and Paska produced an album that easily combines the sounds, lyrical themes, and atmospheres of three of the greatest and most influential artists of any generation.  Artists of every generation have been trying to come up with a sound that even comes close to what Morgan and Paska did in a bedroom.

The instrumentation on The Long Trail That Leads To Nowhere would be amazing if it came from an artist on a major label, but is absolutely unbelievable considering it came from Morgan's limited bedroom resources. Even though Morgan and Paska had limited resources, every Zeppelin sounding guitar solo, every Bob Dylan like riff, and every Beatles like section flows together perfectly and sounds like it has been rehearsed for hours. The instrumentation on The Long Trail That Leads Nowhere is an album that is living proof that it is possible not only to combine three of the most important artists of all-time, but to combine them with limited bedroom production.  Morgan and Paska's instrumentation on this album shouldn't serve as an inspiration to other artists who have spent years trying to even come close to crafting the sound that he is producing in his bedroom, but it should serve as a huge slap on the face.  It is obvious that Morgan and Paska have figured out some sort of musical formula, one that places emotion over ego and pride over overproduction, that gives his music a distinct sound that only he and his band have the ability to create.  Instead of trying to replicate geniuneness and emotion that cannot possibly be replicated by anyone other than Fawn and Rabbit, maybe "more fortunate" artists should just a note from The Long Trail That Leads Nowhere and start giving a shit again.

The next thing that makes The Trail That Leads To Nowhere so damn good is how raw and emotional this album is.  Even though this album features songs about dead dogs, old sci-fi movies, and flying like a dove, the "genuine" nature of the album soars above "emotional" music that I have heard so far in 2012.  Every lyric that is supposed to be heartbreaking will actually break your heart, every line that is supposed to be witty and cynical will make you laugh, and every chorus that is supposed to be happy will make you feel endless joy.  It is safe to say The Trail That Leads To Nowhere isn't just an album that combines Dylan, Zeppelin, and the Beatles, it is an album that is so genuine that it can make you feel like Dylan, Zeppelin, and the Beatles.  The albums raw nature makes it so relatable that the listener not only becomes the album; but becomes everything that influenced the album and every sound that the album blends together.  The Trail That Leads To Nowhere is essentially the opposite of what the albums title infers.  The listen of this album is a trail that can take you to Highway 61, Strawberry Fields, and to that Stairway to Heaven.  The Trail That Leads To Nowhere isn't a trail to some rehashed and cliche sound, it is a trail that leads you to where every other artist has wanted to take you with their music.

You might only be able to produce a screw and a surfing of Safari in your bedroom, but Fawn & Rabbit were able to produce an album that can take you everywhere you have ever wanted to go in their isolated bedrooms.  This raw album not only combines every influence that we have ever thought of as important; it helps us become them.  It is a transformative experience that can only lead you to one conclusion: Fawn and Rabbit should "own the musical world."  Today and tomorrow.

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Tracklist:
1. Downpour
2. You Don't Bark
3. We Own The World (Today and Tomorrow)
4. Dove Song
5. Nosferatu
6. Deepest Ocean