J. Tillman's got one a hell of a voice, of course: The newest Fleet Foxes member wasn't just plopped down behind the drumkit post-Sun Giant 'cuz he gives good beard. It merits mention that Tillman's been crafting hushed folk yearners for years, and that Year in the Kingdom is Tillman's second LP of 2009. And it's right around here that we can stop bringing up those other dudes; whereas Foxes trade in the precise and the pristine, Tillman's songs drift along like a piece of ragged wood in the river, a little gnarled but easygoing nevertheless. He's also dealing in a much more contemporary style of folk, kinda, taking plenty of cues from Mark Kozelek's placidly expansive work with Sun Kil Moon and even more recently Bon Iver's ambient whirl. Tillman's records-- and there's no shortage-- are quiet, pensive, unassuming things, Sunday morning kick-around music. And, while the loose, oft-airy tunes can occasionally feel inexact, when cloaked in that voice and a few inspired rattletrap arrangements, you'll barely register the deficit.
Year in the Kingdom kicks off with its tidy title track, a strummy, stripped-way-back affair with nothing more than Tillman and his guitar. It's a pleasant enough intro, but I'd have gone with the significantly more adorned "Crosswinds" to kick things off. Tarting Tillman's tune up is a touch of banjo and a few woos while the whistling of the wind teases out the nooks and crannies of its central melody; the effect is not unlike Jim O'Rourke's crackling but never overdone production on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, with a relatively straightaway song taking on new dimension with the addition of a few key elements. Tillman's long been good at coloring in his compositions on wax; his partiality to slow and steady song structure and his avoidance of most vocals besides his own does leave plenty of room to screw around, but there's an incidental feel to the extraneous noise here, in service of the song rather than some kind [#script:http://pitchfork.com/media/backend/js/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/langs/en.js]|||||| of cloak.
As a lyricist, not unlike Foxes' Robin Pecknold, he leans on the pastoral pretty hard, and there's some references to laying a lamb on somebody I suspect might just be biblical. But even when they fail to connect on their own terms, there's a journeyman feel to his words as they unspool (helped along by his lived-in pipes) that conveys meaning even when it's not necessarily there, evoking images of long walks under the stars and that sort of thing. That, plus Tillman's intimate, close-miced voice, does lend Year in the Kingdom a lonesome, somber tone, one Tillman-- a funny, amicable dude, if you've ever heard him clowning on himself at a Fleet Foxes gig-- would do well to shake on occasion. Next time, maybe; for now, the stout, supine Year in the Kingdom, Tillman's second fine record of the year, will certainly do.
