Palo Santo (Shearwater album)

Palo Santo
Studio album by
Shearwater
ReleasedMay 9, 2006
GenreIndie rock
LabelMisra Records
Shearwater chronology
Thieves (EP)
(2005) 		Palo Santo
(2006) 		Rook
(2008)
2007 Re-release Cover
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Guardian[2]
Pitchfork Media(7.6/10)[3]
Prefix(8.0/10)[4]

Palo Santo is an album by Shearwater, released in 2006 on Misra Records.[5][6] The album was re-released in an expanded, partly re-recorded, fully remastered and repackaged edition in 2007 on Matador Records.[7] The album was inspired by the life and death of the singer Nico;[8][9][10] Jonathan Meiburg mentions this on the album The Island Arc Live (Excerpts), in a recording from Shearwater's January 15, 2011, performance at Austin's Central Presbyterian Church.

Critical reception

The New York Times wrote that "this is one of the year's best indie-rock albums ... These 11 flickering — and hummable — songs tell a desperate but not quite decipherable story."[5] NME called the album "both magnificent and bewildering," writing that "meandering piano and plucked banjo laments wind towards dramatic crescendos, songs fracture and split as if powered by dream logic."[11]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Jonathan Meiburg (except "Special Rider Blues").[1]

2006 release

  1. "La Dame et la Licorne" – 5:19
  2. "Red Sea, Black Sea" – 2:58
  3. "White Waves" – 4:21
  4. "Palo Santo" – 3:45
  5. "Seventy-four, Seventy-five" – 3:21
  6. "Nobody" – 3:02
  7. "Sing, Little Birdie" – 3:10
  8. "Johnny Viola" – 2:30
  9. "Failed Queen" – 5:51
  10. "Hail, Mary" – 5:11
  11. "Going Is Song" – 3:41

2007 re-release

The release includes new versions of the tracks "La Dame et la Licorne," "Red Sea, Black Sea," "Seventy-four, Seventy-five," "Johnny Viola," and "Hail Mary," remastered versions of the other tracks retained from the original 2006 release, and a bonus CD containing demos and miscellaneous tracks.

Disk 1

  1. "La Dame et la Licorne" – 5:27
  2. "Red Sea, Black Sea" – 3:09
  3. "White Waves" – 4:20
  4. "Palo Santo" – 3:48
  5. "Seventy-four, Seventy-five" – 3:24
  6. "Nobody" – 3:01
  7. "Sing, Little Birdie" – 3:10
  8. "Johnny Viola" – 2:29
  9. "Failed Queen" – 5:50
  10. "Hail, Mary" – 6:16
  11. "Going Is Song" – 3:42

Disk 2

  1. "My Only Boy" - 4:39
  2. "Every Hook, Every Eye" - 2:20
  3. "Special Rider Blues" (Skip James Cover) - 5:21
  4. "Sing, Little Birdie" (Demo) - 3:05
  5. "Palo Santo" (Demo) - 3:45
  6. "Discontinuities" - 3:41
  7. "Red Sea, Black Sea" (Demo) - 3:10
  8. "Failed Queen" (Demo) - 6:27

References

  1. ^ a b AllMusic review
  2. ^ Costa, Maddy (20 October 2006). "CD: Shearwater, Palo Santo". the Guardian.
  3. ^ "Shearwater: Palo Santo Album Review - Pitchfork". pitchfork.com.
  4. ^ acbradick. "Shearwater - Palo Santo Album Review - Prefixmag.com".
  5. ^ a b Times, The New York (May 29, 2006). "New CD's" – via NYTimes.com.
  6. ^ "Shearwater | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  7. ^ "Album Review: Shearwater - Palo Santo (re-release)". DrownedInSound. Archived from the original on 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2020-08-28.
  8. ^ ""DiS Meets Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater"". January 19, 2010. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  9. ^ ""Shearwater Interview"". August 24, 2007.
  10. ^ ""Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg :: The AD Interview"". August 18, 2008.
  11. ^ "Shearwater | NME". NME. August 29, 2007.