All This Huxley offers a series of blissful, intimate indie rock portraits with the soothing “Home Stockholm”. Things are kept to the essentials with a crisp, fresh-sounding percussion. Lyrics have a poetic, meditative quality to them. By letting their lyrics focus on small narrative, the little vignettes that make up a life, they offer warm welcoming worlds. Hard to precisely pin down, they veer into dream pop, spaghetti westerns, with a slight nod to the theatrical. Never in much of a hurry the songs resemble a grand journey, with the trip being equal to the destination. Rather playful at times they recall the casual cool of the Sea and Cake at times.
Laid-back loose rhythms introduce the collection with the rolling and wry work of “Stockholm”. Such color flows through on the tenderness of “Comrade II” with every gesture gaining such prominence. A fiery spirit influences the whole of the energetic workout of “Dunkirk” for the song careens wildly. Easily the highlight of the collection comes from the soulful spirit of “One Of These Things”. Tiny elements merge and magnify to reveal a vast joyous atmosphere. Vocals have a particularly intimate quality to them for the whole of the piece unfurls in a jubilant fashion. Nicely bringing the whole of the collection to a fantastic finale is the powerful “Ring Buoy”.
On “Home Stockholm” All This Huxley crafts a lovely, wonderful realm one that reveals its charms ever so slowly.
