Avalanche City - Our New Life Above The Ground

• Release Date: Unlisted
• Label: Unsigned
• Standout Songs: Love Don't Leave, Drive On, and Ends In The Ocean
• Sounds Like: A happier Death Cab blended with Bright Eyes.
• Rating: Eight catchy acoustic riff's out of ten.

Avalanche City is the first CD released by up and coming star Dave Baxter, who wrote and recorded the majority of the album (though he got by with a little help from his friends, like Ringo). Recorded in the countryside of New Zealand, Baxter includes deep echoey bass drums, a unique vocal sound and a healthy mix between upbeat songs (Love Love Love) and mellow jams (The Citizens). 

Drive On is a terrific song describing Dave's journey's most likely through the New Zealand countryside. He proclaims to the world to just forget about everything, leave your cell phones, and just drive. This song's somewhat slower, mellow nature is upbeat at the same time. It's a song where you just feel like you could drive forever and not look back. It'd be a great highway driving song for the evening, try it. 

My favourite track of the CD is most easily Ends In The Ocean. It's just SO upbeat. The pounding rhythm of the drums comes in around :28 seconds and it drives the song forward. It's a very free feeling song. The kinda song you'd play when you were starting. Think in a movie like 500 Days of Summer around the 450th day, where Tom Hanson gets out of his funk to pursue architecture. This would be a perfect song to play over a progressive video collage during this part. Tearing everything of his chalkboard, cleaning his house, finding a rhythm finally. This song is perfectly adequate.

Repetition is one of the only downsides of this album. The majority of upbeat songs have a slow almost ska-style up-strumming pattern. Hit a bass note, then hit the bottom couple strings, repeat. Baxter is a talented guy, but there's gotta be some more variation. 

Not to discourage you from listening or anything. It's still a great album, one of my new favourites to chill and study to in the background. It's simple in a way that all the songs revolve around Baxter's life in New Zealand and how great it seems. This is definitely a good thing, one of the best driving CD's since Golden Earring released Radar Love in 1973.

- Alive in stride with Canadian pride. 

Love Don't Leave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIsTNh9hzHs&feature=related

Drive On: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU6yYuK7Ayo With Interview following.

Homepage: http://www.avalanchecity.com/