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Carbon Leaf - Nothing Rhymes With Woman

by Dan Upton

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I was going to start with a long-winded anecdote about the first time I saw Carbon Leaf my freshman year of college, but let's face it--it'll just be one of those you-had-to-be-there sorts of things, or you wondering why I won't stop rambling and get on with the music. So instead I'll just give you the highlights of the bio--Carbon Leaf is a five piece band based out of my undergrad city of Richmond, Virginia, and Nothing Rhymes With Woman marks their seventh studio album in 14 years by my counting. They were really catapulted onto the national stage in 2002 when they were recognized on the American Music Awards and performed "The Boxer."

There's really not much to say about Nothing Rhymes With Woman but to simply recognize it as an album full of masterfully crafted alternative pop rock. The Celtic flavor that I associated with them from 2001's Echo Echo (admittedly the last time I paid much attention to their recorded output) isn't as prevalent, but the rich vocal harmonies and catchy melodies still are. The material is somewhat varied between the straightforward pop rock on songs like opener "Indecision" or "Miss Hollywood" and twangier, folkier songs like "Another Man's Woman" and "Cinnamindy." "Lake Of Silver Bells" sounds to me, from a musical standpoint, like they're aiming for the Coldplay fanbase; despite that, I still enjoy it and sing along when the chorus comes back around the last time. "X-Ray" is another fun pop song for reminiscing about summers as a kid. "Meltdown" has a great funky, bluesy groove and, like pretty much all of the songs, a hooky singalong chorus.

There's nothing particularly complicated or special about this album, but sometimes--as in this case--that works just fine. There aren't any bad songs; you might just rank them based on how many times you have to listen before you find yourself singing along. If you've never listened to Carbon Leaf and like pop rock and folk, you really owe it to yourself to check out them out and Nothing Rhymes With Woman is a great entry point.


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Carbon Leaf - Nothing Rhymes With Woman
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