aaamusic | On 15, Jun 2011

Upon the first listen, The Errant Charmer reminded me of those picture-boards at the seaside with the holes cut out for the faces – the tracks on this album are like the same picture of a mermaid holding flowers but with the faces of different passersby. Vetiver’s monotone vocals drive through the album with feeling and sentiment but monotone nonetheless. On the penultimate attempt at listening to the album I realised that it began to feel less monotone and more like a gentle crash course on how U.S. folk progressed into U.S. Rock over the course of ten track, with each subsequent song sounding more and more contemporary, the biggest difference being the first track, ‘It’s Beyond Me’ and eighth track, ‘Ride, Ride, Ride’. They successfully hark back to an era long gone before so if you appreciate your old school, then Vetiver is for you. For them to draw in a bigger fanbase they need to turn that dial up from ‘cool’ to ‘exciting’ because it is well within their capability.

Author: Angel Lambo